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John Fetterman wants to “eliminate life sentences for murderers. John Fetterman, the lieutenant governor and the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, has advocated for ending mandatory life sentences for what is known as felony murder. But he has not called for eliminating life sentences for all murders, despite a claim in a TV ad by physician and former TV talk show host Mehmet Oz, the Republican Senate nominee. "Failed liberal policies are making us less safe," the narrator says in the ad, which was paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and approved by Oz. "Yet John Fetterman wants to release one-third of prisoners and eliminate life sentences for murderers." PolitiFact rated Oz’s claim about releasing one-third of prisoners Mostly False. Fetterman has not called for that; he did highlight what he said was a comment by Pennsylvania’s former corrections secretary that the state’s prison population could be reduced by one-third without a risk to public safety. Oz’s new claim about Fetterman wanting to "eliminate" life sentences for murders is similarly distorted. The Nov. 8 matchup between Oz and Fetterman is rated by campaign watchers as "tilts Republican" and a toss-up. The outcome could decide which party controls the Senate, which is split 50-50. Fetterman’s focus on second-degree murder A national report highlighted Pennsylvania as one of nine states that mandate life-without-parole sentences for what is known as felony murder. Felony murder is holding a person liable for murder if the person participated in a felony that resulted in someone’s death. For example, if two people participated in a robbery in which a person was shot and killed, the person who did not do the shooting could be convicted of felony murder. The March report from The Sentencing Project, a group that advocates against extreme punishments, found that more than 1,100 people in Pennsylvania were serving life-without-parole sentences for felony murder, which is classified as second-degree murder in the state. In making the claim about life sentences, the Oz ad refers to a June 1, 2021, article in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, which describes itself as a news source on state government that also offers progressive commentary. The article notes Fetterman’s position in favor of eliminating life sentences for second-degree murder and quotes him at a town hall with reform advocates saying: "These folks are not Hannibal Lecter. These are individuals that may have been involved in a bad decision, terrible mistake, or something that they had no idea was going to occur." Featured Fact-check Kanye West stated on October 16, 2022 in an interview Suggests fentanyl, not Derek Chauvin, killed George Floyd By Gabrielle Settles • October 18, 2022 The National Republican Senatorial Committee did not offer more information to back the ad’s claim. Fetterman repeatedly said in 2021 that the Pennsylvania law should be changed. He wrote about commissioning a report he said "clearly spelled out the need to abolish Pennsylvania's horrible and immoral practice" of mandatory life sentences for second-degree murder. The law "ruins lives that could be rehabilitated while costing taxpayers billions and leaving them no safer as a result," he said when the report was released. The report said that, as of Sept. 30, 2019, 1,166 people were in Pennsylvania prisons serving life-without-parole sentences for second-degree, or felony, murder. The accomplice in such cases "could have stood outside a convenience store as the lookout to a robbery that escalated into a death, driven the ‘get-away’ car, or helped to plan the felony with no idea that a gun or other weapon would be involved," the report said. Fetterman’s campaign noted that a March 2020 York Daily Record news article paraphrased Fetterman as saying there are people who should die in prison because they've committed heinous crimes. He was quoted in that article saying, "Justice isn't giving somebody the equivalent sentence who was sitting outside in a getaway car to the individual that made the decision to shoot an innocent person." The campaign also cited Fetterman’s votes on Pennsylvania’s Board of Pardons, which he chairs, to deny clemency to people who sought a commutation of their life sentences. Our ruling Oz said in an ad that Fetterman wants to "eliminate life sentences for murderers." Fetterman has not called for eliminating life sentences for murder. He has called for reversing Pennsylvania’s law that mandates life-without-parole sentences for second-degree murder, or so-called felony murder, for defendants who are accessories in a killing. In those cases, the defendants are involved in felony crimes, such as robbery, that result in a death, but they were not directly responsible for the killing. Oz’s claim contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False. RELATED: Fact-checking ads in the 2022 election campaigns RELATED: Pennsylvania fact-chec

"The Sun is out of place, the Moon is out of place and the stars are out of place. The compasses are off" because of a shift in the Earth’s poles Is your weather forecaster lying to you? According to a viral Facebook post, yes. And it’s about more than impending rain. This time, it's about the cosmos. "The Sun is out of place, the Moon is out of place and the stars are out of place. The compases are off," wrote a Facebook user on July 29, 2022. The post goes on to suggest other meteorological abnormalities are being covered up, as well, like "electrified neon double rainbows," "Blood red fiery sunrises and sunsets," and skies "glowing abnormally red, orange, purple, yellow, (and) green." The post claims that the cause of all this drama is an impending "Global Pole Shift Cataclysm" that is a mere 22 weeks away. And the grimmest warning, misspelling meteorologists: "These metrologists are going to comfort you with lies until it's too late." It makes for a great intro to a sci-fi novel, but otherwise, this claim is entirely invented. Experts confirm that the position of the sun, moon and stars has not moved in unexpected ways, and there have been no dramatic changes in either the magnetic or geographic poles. (Screenshot from Facebook) The Facebook post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) To understand the claim fully, let’s go back to science class. The apparent position of the sun and moon is constantly changing, said Shannon Schmoll, director of Michigan State University’s Abrams Planetarium. This is because of the Earth’s tilt relative to the sun — the same tilt that causes changing seasons and longer or shorter days throughout the year. The tilt of the moon’s orbit can also affect where the moon appears in the sky. Even stars, over thousands of years, can shift because of their motion around the galaxy, but these changes require sensitive telescopes and are often imperceptible, said Schmoll. "All of these (movements) are highly predictable," Schmoll said. "We have been tracking these regular changes for much of human history." Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 23, 2022 in an Instagram post “Wikileaks releases moon landing cut scenes filmed in the Nevada desert.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 25, 2022 Schmoll is not aware of any recent anomalies in the position of the sun, moon or stars and said, "There are folks outside, amateur and professional alike, who are out almost every night and would notice something off." "Astronomers are actively engaged in the measurement of the dynamic universe," said Dominic Benford, NASA program scientist for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. "Daily observations result in the measurement of millions of objects, and these data are made available to the worldwide astronomical community." Physicists frequently study the motion of the sun and moon, and their movements are well understood, Benford said. "Any significant anomalies in the positions of these would be quickly seen and followed up by the thousands of scientists, and would become well-known. The lack of such announcements is not merely consistent with, but likely predictive of there being no unexpected anomalies in the motions of solar system or Milky Way objects." So, if the sun and moon aren’t moving, perhaps we are? The Facebook post claims that the freak astronomy is because of a shift in the North and South poles. Good news for polar bears and penguins, this claim is also false. The Earth actually has two North and South poles: the geographic poles around which the Earth rotates, and the magnetic poles, where our compasses point. The magnetic North and South poles exist because of Earth’s liquid, metallic core, which creates a geomagnetic field that surrounds our planet. This "magnetosphere" is incredibly important for life on Earth, protecting us from solar winds, particle radiation and cosmic rays that would erode our atmosphere. And because of "convective flows and magnetohydrodynamic waves" within the Earth’s liquid core, our magnetic poles drift, said Arnaud Chulliat, a senior research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and the lead developer of the World Magnetic Model. For three centuries, the magnetic North Pole wandered around the northern part of Canada, but Chulliat said that between the late 1980s and early 2000s, the drift rate accelerated from about 15 kilometers/year to about 55 km/year and began moving toward Siberia. Chulliat said that drift speed has since plateaued and even slightly decreased according to recent models. (A kilometer is 0.62 miles) The magnetic poles can even flip, causing our compasses to point south. On the geologic time scale, it is relatively common. Over the last 20 million years, flips have occurred about every 200,000 to 300,000 years, with the last flip happening around 780,000 years ago. Flips are not instantaneous; they take place over hundreds or thousands of years. Both Chulliat and geophysicist Ciaran Beggan at the British Geological Institute said there have been no unexpected or concerning changes in the constantly monitored magnetic field, and despite online claims, Beggan said there is "no evidence of an immediate or imminent reversal." The geographic poles are much stabler. According to researchers, during the 20th century, the geographic poles drifted 4 inches a year, totaling 11 yards of shift by the turn of the century. Recently the drift rate has accelerated, and some researchers have linked it to climate change and melting ice caps, which can alter Earth’s mass distribution. But since 1980, the poles have still drifted only 13 feet, reported USA Today. Lastly, because of a tidal-force-induced bulge at the equator, the Earth wobbles slightly as it rotates. The process is called axial precession, and the Earth behaves like an off-kilter spinning toy top. But the wobble occurs over a 26,000-year cycle, and its effects are not noticeable in our lifetimes, said Schmoll. Our ruling Our solar system has many moving parts. Even the core of our big blue marble is in motion. But there is no evidence that the sun, moon or stars are "out of place" or moving differently than what astronomers would expect. There is also no evidence of a current or impending shift in either the magnetic or geographic poles. They both move, but slowly. Conclusion? You can probably trust your weather forecaster. We rate this claim Pants On Fir

Synthetic cyanide-based B12 is a "toxic ingredient in your kids vitamins. Chewable Flintstones vitamins have been around for generations, outliving the popular cartoon TV show for which they were named. But a video shared on social media claims the childhood supplement is potentially deadly. "The Toxic Ingredient in Your Kids Vitamins," read the words across the top of the July 28 Facebook video that shared a clip from a podcast. In it, guest Gary Brecka warns against the vitamin B12, which he says is an ingredient in Flintstones and other supplements. "The most common form of B12 in the world is entirely synthetic. We make it from hydrogen cyanide," said Brecka, who describes himself in his LinkedIn profile as founder of a Florida-based health business. "It’s called cyanocobalamin. It’s a cyanide-based B12. I mean it’s hard to believe that we’re allowed to make vitamins out of hydrogen cyanide in this country, but we are. Flintstones vitamins have cyanocobalamin." The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Is it true that children’s vitamins have synthetic cyanide? We reached out to Brecka to ask for more information to support his statements, but did not receive a response in time for publication. Flintstones vitamins do contain cyanocobalamin, which is man-made B12. But the video’s claim that the ingredient is toxic is wrong. The Mayo Clinic describes B12 as a vitamin that "plays an essential role in red blood cell formation, cell metabolism, nerve function and the production of DNA, the molecules inside cells that carry genetic information." According to the National Institutes of Health, B12 is naturally present in some foods, notably animal products, and dissolves in water. It’s also added to foods or given as a supplement, the agency wrote. In The synthetic form, cyanocobalamin, is usually given to people who have low levels of B12. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 NIH’s fact sheet for health professionals says B12 has a "low potential for toxicity." The agency notes that cyanocobalamin is also safe — no overdosage occurs. "Even at large doses, vitamin B12 is generally considered to be safe because the body does not store excess amounts," read the fact sheet. A separate NIH fact sheet, written for consumers, also states that B12 supplements are safe, even at doses higher than recommended — and for the same reason: "the body absorbs only a small percentage of it," it says. Dr. Herman B. Gray, chair of Wayne State University’s Department of Pediatrics, told PolitiFact that for most people, eating a balanced, healthy diet provides enough B12, and taking a supplement is usually unnecessary. But, he said, "it is safe to take in prescribed dosages, including for children." Cyanocobalamin is not the same as the poison cyanide, Gray said. Cyanocobalamin has only a molecule of cyanide, which is not enough to cause poisoning. In an article on B12 supplements, the science and technology news site Gizmodo explained it this way: "Don’t panic. The body can deal with small amounts of cyanide, usually by using sodium thiosulfate, converting the cyanide ions to thiocyanate, which you then excrete. Cyanocobalamin is safe, and found in food additives, health supplements and the injections that doctors give patients with anemia." Gray concurred, noting that B12 has been used safely for decades. "Vitamin B-12 or cyanocobalamin is not toxic," he said. Our ruling A video on a Facebook post claims that the synthetic form of B12 found in children’s vitamins is toxic. Cyanocobalamin is man-made B12, but health organizations and pediatricians say it’s safe to consume. We rate this claim False

“China threatens to shoot Nancy Pelosi’s plane down if she visits Taiwan. With tensions running high over a potential visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who-said-what misinformation is spreading on social media. "China threatens to shoot Nancy Pelosi’s plane down if she visits Taiwan," says a July 31 post on Instagram. It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The statement did not originate with China’s government. It was tweeted by Hu Xijin, former chief editor of and now a commentator for the Global Times, a Chinese nationalist newspaper. He later deleted the tweet after Twitter blocked his account. Pelosi has said her multicountry trip to Asia might include a stop in Taiwan, to show support for the self-governing island that China views as its territory. Her potential visit comes amid worries about Chinese aggression against Taiwan and as Russia’s war against Ukraine continues. China has strenuously warned against such a visit, and said its military would "not sit idly by" if it were to happen, Reuters reported Aug. 1. On July 31, as The New York Times reported, a Chinese air force spokesman, without specifying dates, said his country’s "fighter jets would fly around Taiwan to demonstrate its ability to defend its territory." However, "American officials doubt the Chinese military will interfere with Ms. Pelosi’s ability to land safely in Taiwan, betting that Beijing does not want a direct confrontation with the United States," The New York Times reported Aug. 1. "But they say it is possible that Chinese planes will ‘escort’ Ms. Pelosi’s plane, as a demonstration of control over the air routes." Though China has expressed emphatically that Pelosi should not visit Taiwan — warning that "whoever plays with fire will get burned" — it was Hu who tweeted that if Pelosi visited Taiwan, "Our fighter jets should deploy all obstructive tactics. If those are still ineffective, I think it is okay too to shoot down Pelosi's plane," Reuters reported July 30. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 14, 2022 in an Instagram post Video footage showing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi hiding on Jan. 6, 2021, shows the U.S. Capitol attack “was a setup.” By Madison Czopek • October 17, 2022 Hu then deleted the tweet "to unlock his Twitter account, which had been blocked as the tweet was deemed by Twitter to have violated the platform's rules and had to be removed by the account holder," according to Reuters. Though some media accounts gave the impression that Hu is a Chinese government mouthpiece, that is not supported by evidence, according to U.S.-China Perception Monitor, a not-for-profit operated by the China Focus of the Carter Center, a nongovernmental organization. "Despite Hu’s grinding patriotism and total devotion to the (Chinese Communist) Party, the Global Times is far more than a Party mouthpiece," the not-for-profit reported. "It does not necessarily reflect the views of the government or Party." Our ruling An Instagram post said, "China threatens to shoot Nancy Pelosi’s plane down if she visits Taiwan." The statement did not originate with China’s government. It was from a tweet by Hu Xijin, former chief editor of and now commentator for the Chinese nationalist newspaper Global Times. He later deleted the tweet. Some media accounts have attempted to portray Hu as speaking for the Chinese government, but evidence does not support the claim that the government sanctioned his comments. We rate this claim False.

"There is absolutely no reason why Wisconsin should be facing a worker shortage to the level we are when there are 123,000 more able-bodied childless adults on BadgerCare since the pandemic. In a recent Republican gubernatorial debate on WTMJ-TV, Rebecca Kleefisch put a different spin on unemployment and the state’s workforce. Here is how her staff relayed the comment in a July 24, 2022 tweet, issued even as the debate continued: "There is absolutely no reason why Wisconsin should be facing a worker shortage to the level we are when there are 123,000 more able-bodied childless adults on BadgerCare since the pandemic. We need to get Wisconsinites off welfare and into work that pays!" Kleefisch, a two-term lieutenant governor, was joined in the GOP debate by businessman Tim Michels and state Rep. Tim Ramthun, R-Campbellsport. The primary election is Aug. 9, 2022, with the winner facing Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat. We were interested in whether Kleefisch had her numbers right — but also whether it’s as simple as putting any able-bodied adult on BadgerCare into an available job. Spoiler alert: It’s much more complicated than that. A look at the numbers When asked for backup for the claim, Kleefisch staffer Mattias Gugel pointed PolitiFact Wisconsin to Department of Health Services statistics on Medicaid. Those numbers show that in February 2020, just before the pandemic, total Medicaid childless adult enrollment was 152,046. In June of 2022, enrollment was at 277,939 — an increase of 125,893. Gugel said Kleefisch was using May numbers, when the increase would have been 123,311. He also argued that the use of the phrase "to the level" meant Kleefisch "doesn't believe this was some cure-all to fix the worker shortage." Fair enough. But that was the thrust of the argument — that those able-bodied people on Medicaid could make a big dent in the worker shortage. Indeed, Gugel also told us that, in Kleefisch’s view, Evers and President Joe Biden are "refusing to remove individuals from Medicaid who should no longer be eligible. The availability of government benefits is a disincentive to work, therefore a contributing factor to the worker shortage problem." So, that framing — the way it is being presented to voters — makes a difference in our analysis, and causes us to give more weight to that side of the equation. Two faulty premises Elizabeth Goodsitt, a Department of Health Services communications specialist, said the claim — and the way Gugel says Kleefisch is framing it — relies on two faulty premises: "One, the state could simply remove individuals from BadgerCare Plus at any time, and two that working and being on BadgerCare Plus are mutually exclusive. Both are inaccurate." Featured Fact-check Tim Michels stated on October 24, 2022 in News conference Tony Evers “wants to let out between 9,000 and 10,000 more” Wisconsin prisoners By Madeline Heim • November 4, 2022 On the removal front, Goodsitt said federal law "effectively bars states from changing or terminating Medicaid coverage until after the (COVID) public health emergency ends." At this time, that is not set to expire until Oct. 13, 2022. On the working front, she said historically more than 45% of those childless adults are employed, adding: "They enroll in BadgerCare Plus because they are underemployed and do not have health insurance available through their jobs." What’s more, although there is a worker shortage in many areas, Kleefisch in her claim neglects to recognize that employment in Wisconsin has reached historic highs — and unemployment is near record lows. "The state’s ‘labor force participation rate’ (measuring the share of the working-age population in the labor force) is 66.5%," Laura Dresser, associate director at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center on Wisconsin Strategy, told us via email. "That’s higher than it was before the pandemic and substantially higher than the national rate of 62.3%. Jennifer Sereno, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development’s communications director, pointed to similar statistics and noted they "would appear to undermine the assertion that participation in BadgerCare is affecting employment and labor force participation" Finally, worker shortages are about more than the Medicaid benefits. Sachin Shivaram, CEO of Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry in Manitowoc, laid out his perspective in a May 2021 opinion piece that ran in USA Today Network-Wisconsin newspapers. "Since the start of the pandemic, the labor force in America has shrunk by about 4 million people," he wrote. "This does not include workers on unemployment, because they are technically considered to be in the labor force." He also pointed to demographic issues: "Our overall population grew by just 7% in the past 10 years while the economy grew by 50%. Add to that, baby boomers are retiring in droves." There are other factors, too, including slower rates of immigration and the mismatch between skills that employers seek and the skills job seekers have. "The pandemic displaced millions of low-skilled workers in economic sectors like hospitality and retail," Shivaram wrote. "But the jobs that are in highest demand now are in sectors like manufacturing and truck driving that generally require specific training." So, the picture is far, far more complex than Kleefisch suggests. In other words, there are reasons — many of them — behind the worker shortage, ones that go far beyond the number of able-bodied childless adults on BadgerCare. Our ruling Kleefisch claimed, "There is absolutely no reason why Wisconsin should be facing a worker shortage to the level we are when there are 123,000 more able-bodied childless adults on BadgerCare since the pandemic." She was on target with the 123,000 figure, but is off the mark when she links the number so strongly to the worker shortage. First, many of those 123,000 may already be working. And they may not be able to step into many of the open jobs without additional training. What’s more, the claim greatly oversimplifies the economy and the factors helping create the workers shortage, from baby boomers retiring to lower immigration to the mismatch between worker skills and open jobs. For a statement that contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression, our rating is Mostly False. window.gciAnalyticsUAID = 'PMJS-TEALIUM-COBRAND'; window.gciAnalyticsLoadEvents = false; window.gciAnalytics.view({ 'event-type': 'pageview', 'content-type': 'interactives', 'content-ssts-section': 'news', 'content-ssts-subsection': 'news:politics', 'content-ssts-topic': 'news:politics:politifactwisconsin', 'content-ssts-subtopic': ' news:politics:politifactwisconsin' });

Pens provided by Maricopa County are part of a plot to rig the Arizona primary Remember Sharpiegate, the baseless 2020 election fraud claim that made Maricopa County, Arizona, an election night social media sensation? Viral videos claimed that ballots marked with Sharpie pens were being invalidated. We found that False. RELATED VIDEO As voters head to the polls again for Arizona’s Aug. 2 primary, a similar claim is raising election skeptics’ ire, this time about the Pentel felt-tip pens Maricopa is providing. One Twitter user suggested the pens were a tool to rig elections by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican. "#SharpieGate all over again in AZ. Bring your ball-point pens. Make sure that there’s no bleed-through on your ballot to avoid adjudication," wrote one person on Twitter. "@stephen_richer is hoping you trip up the rigged election software so he and his TREASONISTS can rig the primaries." Another Twitter user advised voters to "use your own pen." State Rep. Shawnna Bolick, a Republican primary candidate for secretary of state, and Republican state Sen. Wendy Rogers, also suggested there is something problematic with Maricopa’s pens. We’ll get right to the point: We found no evidence that the pens are a plot to rig the elections. Maricopa officials chose the pens because the ink dries quickly Maricopa County has used Pentel felt-tip pens as the preferred ballot marking pen for decades, said Megan Gilbertson, spokesperson for Maricopa’s elections office. In 2020, the county moved to Sharpies because the ink was recommended by the election equipment manufacturer, Dominion Voting. While claims that the pens caused ballot invalidation were wrong, Richer told PolitiFact Sharpies "caused more bleed-through than we like." So the county tested out the Pentel pens and decided to use them instead. "Because you are feeding your ballot directly into the tabulation equipment after voting, the ink needs to dry quickly so it doesn’t leave any residue that can build up inside the tabulator and necessitate cleaning midday," Richer said. "Ballpoint and gel pens leave more residue." Anything that causes election workers to stop and clean up the machines could slow down the process of voting. Another problem with slow-drying pens: They can smudge ovals that a voter doesn’t intend to mark. Featured Fact-check Mark Finchem stated on October 9, 2022 in a rally The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” By Amy Sherman • October 17, 2022 Voters who cast a mail ballot can use any blue or black pen because the ink has time to dry before it arrives and goes through a tabulator, Richer said. Most of the primary ballots are one-sided, so there isn’t typically an issue with bleed-through to the other side, Richer said. For any ballots with two sides, the columns are offset so that any bleedthrough wouldn’t interfere with tabulation. Maricopa created a one-minute video showing the pens they provide to voters and how other pens can create problematic smudges. If voters show up on Election Day and insist on using their own blue or black pens, they will be allowed to do so. But poll workers have been advised to notify voters that the pen provided by the county is the best option, and if they use their own, they should allow it to dry. Massachusetts Institute of Technology political science professor Charles Stewart, an election technology expert, said there is no worry about pens with respect to security, but there are concerns when it comes to accuracy. "It has been known for decades that smudging is a problem with ballots, both the printed ballots themselves and the pens used to mark them," Stewart said. "The Maricopa County video is 100% accurate in what it states. Voters ignore the advice at their peril." We sent Maricopa’s video to two other experts on elections, Judd Choate, Colorado’s state election director, and Jennifer Morrell, a former election official in Utah and Colorado and a partner at The Elections Group, which consults on election administration. Both backed Maricopa’s explanation. The claims about bleeding pens might sound amusing, but they are part of a never-ending stream of misinformation about elections that threaten the democratic process. The Arizona Republic reported that in the days surrounding the pen misinformation, Richer faced death threats. Richer has tried to debunk the misinformation on social media. "It's a primary," Richer tweeted. "What the heck do you think we get out of giving people a special pen other than a smooth functioning election? Do you think we're just asking you to use the Pentel pen to be funny? Good lord people." Our ruling Social media users have suggested there is something wrong with the Pentel pens provided by Maricopa elections officials and that they are part of a plot to rig the Arizona primary Aug. 2. The county tested the pens and found they dry quickly, which helps during in-person voting when voters feed their ballots into the tabulation machine. If voters use a pen that doesn’t dry quickly, it can smudge the ballot or muck up the tabulation machine, requiring cleaning and slowing the voting process. We found no evidence the pens are part of a nefarious scheme by election officials. We rate this statement False. RELATED: Despite #sharpiegate, no evidence of plot to use the pens to cancel Trump votes RELATED: Voting by mail has been popular in Arizona for decades. Now the state GOP wants to ban it RELATED: All of our fact-checks about Arizona RELATED: All of our fact-checks about electio

Sen. Mark Kelly “voted to legalize abortion up until the moment of birth. In the abortion debate, Republicans have long claimed that Democrats support abortion without limit. During a Trump rally in his state, Arizona Republican and U.S. Senate hopeful Blake Masters deployed a version of this barb against Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly. "He voted to legalize abortion up until the moment of birth," Masters said July 22. Arizona’s primary election is Aug. 2, and polling puts Masters in the lead for the Republican nomination. Masters’ campaign told us he was referring to Kelly’s vote for the Women’s Health Protection Act. "The legislation, which Kelly also co-sponsored, mandates abortion on-demand until the moment of birth as federal law," said Masters campaign adviser Katie Miller. "It also removes nearly all existing state-level guardrails around abortion." Masters’ claim fails to align with the facts for several reasons, most of them rooted in his focus on the very end of a full-term pregnancy. Not ‘abortion on demand’ In a May 2022 vote — before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — Kelly backed the Women's Health Protection Act as a way to affirm the legal right to an abortion. It barred states from passing laws that prohibited abortion "after fetal viability when a provider determines the pregnancy risks the patient's life or health." The bill failed on a 46-48 vote. Contrary to what Master’s campaign said, the bill’s text does not mandate abortion on demand "until the moment of birth." The woman would play a key role in any decision, but a plain reading of the text places equal responsibility in the hands of the physician. That fails to meet the commonly used definition of "abortion on demand." "‘On demand’ means whenever I want, for whatever reason, or no reason," said Drexel University law professor David Cohen. Requiring the provider’s agreement to the procedure is "the polar opposite," Cohen said. Rare and severe health crises Dr. Nisha Verma is a fellow at the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a practicing OB-GYN in Delaware. Verma said that Masters’ claim is based on the false premise that pregnancies are being aborted in the very final weeks in the absence of a lethal fetal anomaly, or a health crisis. Generally, women who carry a pregnancy to that point, she said, want to keep their babies. "I have cared for people who do receive terrible fetal diagnoses," Verma said. "For example, that their baby has not developed a brain and will not survive after birth, or who face life-threatening medical conditions and who need abortions in the third trimester." Verma said these situations are rare. At the national level, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks abortions by the weeks of gestation. Terminations that take place at 21 weeks or later account for about 1% of all abortions. Arizona’s department of health services doesn’t have this data on its website, but slightly more granular information can be found in Texas. Texas data shows abortions that occur at 26 weeks or later. From 2008 through 2021, those represented about 0.01% of abortions. Verma emphasized that when the woman faces a health crisis, abortion is far from the first option. "I counsel my patients about the options, and in many situations, based on my patient's wishes, proceed with an induction of labor or C-section that aims to protect both the patient and the baby," Verma said. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology sees signs that fear of strict abortion penalties has pushed doctors to delay medical treatment for pregnancies with severe complications. Laws already allow abortion in a medical crisis The Women’s Health Protection Act can’t legalize something that is already legal. There are health exceptions in state abortion laws, and civil liability laws support medical intervention in grievous circumstances. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post The documentary “2,000 Mules proves” Democrats “cheated on the 2020 elections.” By Jon Greenberg • October 28, 2022 Teresa Collett, law professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, has argued in favor of abortion restrictions and served on the Roman Catholic Pontifical Council for the Family. "Every state has an emergency exception in their general civil liability laws, and every state law limiting abortion to certain gestational ages or methods has a more specific emergency exception," Collett said. A century of civil liability legislation has given doctors a legal responsibility to give the best possible care. It is a complex legal framework, hugely driven by the facts of each individual situation. Maxwell Mehlman, law professor and co-director of the Law-Medicine Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, said that generally, in these settings, physicians must intervene. "The doctor has a legal duty to take reasonable steps to preserve the life and health of the patient," Mehlman said. "If they don’t, in the most egregious situations, this has led to criminal prosecutions." Anti-abortion laws complicate this legal guidance, Mehlman said. Even with an exception for the life and health of the woman, they create a legal hazard for hospitals and doctors. Under liability law, providers should intervene. Under a state’s abortion statute, they could face criminal sanctions. "The doctor is between a rock and a hard place," Mehlman said. The bill Kelly supported would did not have changed how current laws would apply to abortions in the final weeks of pregnancy. But it would have prohibited states from criminalizing abortions. Lack of examples of non-health-related abortions Abortion opponents say that under the Women’s Health Protection Act, the definition of "the patient's life or health" is vague. Collett at the University of St. Thomas said past court rulings on abortion show how broadly those terms could apply. "The health exception, without any statutory qualification, includes psychological health and other non-physical aspects including age and familial status," Collett said. "Such a broad interpretation is probable given the rules of interpretation contained in the Women’s Health Protection Act." In theory, the bill could allow an abortion that is not strictly because of physical health. The question is, do such cases exist? We did not find data on abortions taking place very late in pregnancy in the absence of a physical, medical crisis. We asked Collett whether she knew of an instance when a non-health issue has led to an abortion so late in pregnancy. She said she did not. We asked the National Right to Life Committee for the same information. They pointed to testimony in the mid-1990s from a doctor who performed abortions. The doctor said pregnancies after 26 weeks were "interrupted because of maternal risk, rape, incest, psychiatric or pediatric indications." The last term applied to teenage pregnancies. The committee’s press office said that reasons such as psychiatric and teenage pregnancies are evidence that a broad definition of health would apply to the Women’s Health Protection Act. But when we asked for an example of an abortion taking place in the final weeks for anything other than a clear medical crisis, the committee provided none. Masters’ claim presented a legal conundrum for which there’s no evidence. Additionally, the testimony from the mid-1990s covered a different time span than the final weeks of pregnancy that Masters spoke about. Our ruling Masters said that Kelly voted to "legalize abortion up until the moment of birth." Kelly voted for the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would have prohibited states from banning abortion of a viable fetus when the life and health of the woman are at risk. It also would have prevented the criminalization of abortions. Abortion in the last weeks of pregnancy are exceedingly rare. Abortion opponents we reached cited no example where abortions ocurred so late without a clear medical reason. Also, state civil liability laws — in place to ensure medical providers give patients the best treatment possible — already permit abortions in certain medical circumstances. The bill Kelly supported did not change that. We rate this claim Mostly False. RELATED: Fact-checking Pence’s claim on Democrats and abortion ‘up to the moment of birth’ RELATED: Do Democrats support abortion up until (and after) birth? RELATED: Anti-abortion group exaggerates how states regulate late-term abortio

The Atlantic published a story titled “Quiet Courage of Biden’s Negative Growth Economy A viral image has been circulating on social media purporting to show a newsletter from The Atlantic praising President Joe Biden for his "quiet courage" following news that the United States’ economy shrank for the second straight financial quarter. A Facebook user posted a screenshot on July 30 of what appeared to be the magazine’s website featuring the headline "The Quiet Courage of Biden’s Negative Growth Economy." "In an era of unchecked economic prosperity, one man had the moxie to pump the brakes – to save us from ourselves," read the subheadline as it appeared in the post. The screenshot made it look as if a story was written by someone named Tim Nichols and had appeared in the magazine's email newsletter, "The Atlantic Daily". The post, which was also being shared elsewhere, was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 The image is fake. (Screengrab from Facebook.) No such article or newsletter with the headline featured in the screenshot appears on The Atlantic’s website. A Google search also turns up zero results of articles with the same headline — and shows only stories about the misleading image itself. The Atlantic does have one article with a similar headline that reads "The Quiet Courage of Bob Moses," but it was written in 2021 by William Sturkey about a Black civil rights activist. "This image is indeed fabricated, and is not an actual Atlantic article," Anna Bross, senior vice president of communications for The Atlantic, said. "We have reported this as fake and as a trademark infringement." Bross said the magazine doesn’t employ anyone named Tim Nichols. However, someone named Tom Nichols does work for The Atlantic as a contributing writer and authors the "Peacefield" newsletter. The lowercase "i" in Tim featured in the screenshot also appears to be in a different font from the rest of the name, suggesting that it may have been changed from an "o" to an "i." Our ruling A Facebook post shared a fabricated screenshot meant to look like a real article from The Atlantic praising President Biden following news that the United States economy had shrunk. A spokesperson for The Atlantic confirmed the image is a fake and said the publication does not employ anyone using the name featured in the screenshot, although a person with a similar name is employed as a contributing writer. We rate this Fals

The Democrats’ Women’s Health Protection Act of 2022 “would permit abortion up until delivery. Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, state and national lawmakers have scrambled to introduce legislation that either restricts or secures access to abortion. Some Iowa Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Marianette Miller-Meeks, stand firmly against the procedure. In a July 17 newsletter that addressed several topics, Miller-Meeks wrote: "I also spoke this week against the radical left’s abortion bill that would permit abortion up until delivery. This is only allowed in several countries, including China and North Korea. The power to regulate abortion should be left to the voters and state legislators." PolitiFact has previously looked at international comparisons for abortion laws, and the picture is complicated. Here, we’ll focus instead on whether or not the abortion bill that was passed by the U.S. House — and sent to the Senate, where it is considered unlikely to secure the required 60 votes — would allow abortion through delivery. The bill, H.R. 8296, titled "Women’s Health Protection Act of 2022" and proposed by Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., says states would not be able to keep health care providers from offering abortions before fetal viability, which generally is around 24 weeks into pregnancy. It adds that states could restrict health care providers from providing abortions after fetal viability, but only "when, in the good-faith medical judgment of the treating health care provider, continuation of the pregnancy would pose a risk to the pregnant patient’s life or health." The House approved the bill 219-210. Miller-Meeks joined all of her fellow Republicans and one Democrat — Rep. Henry Cueller of Texas — voting against the bill. Miller-Meeks spoke during a July 15 House debate on the bill, in which several other Republicans — though not Miller-Meeks — called the bill an "abortion on demand until birth act." Miller-Meeks said legalizing abortion should be left up to states "while recognizing the sanctity of life. This concept is so novel and repugnant to the Democrats that they would put forward a radical and extreme abortion bill that would permit abortion even up until birth for any reason." A reading of the bill shows that H.R. 8296 permits abortion up until delivery, but only if it is deemed necessary to protect the life of the patient. It does not explicitly require states to keep the procedure legal in all cases past the point of fetal viability. Featured Fact-check Deidre DeJear stated on October 19, 2022 in a tweet "Kim Reynolds doesn’t think nurses are educated." By Liam Halawith • October 31, 2022 Republican officeholders previously have said, in slightly different phrasings, that Democrats want to allow abortions until the moment of birth, but PolitiFact has often found these to be misleading. In this instance, the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2022 would allow abortions only if medical professionals believe in good faith that delaying to do so would produce a risk of life or health for their patient. Miller-Meeks’ newsletter comment has a point that the bill "would permit abortion up until delivery." However, she glosses over a crucial qualifier: The bill would allow such abortions only under extreme circumstances, in which medical professionals determine that the mother’s life or health is at risk. It’s worth noting that late-term abortions — the kind that would need to be approved under these circumstances — are rare. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in its latest count from November 2021 that of the 629,898 abortions performed in 2019, almost 93% of them were at or before 13 weeks of pregnancy. About 6% were performed between 14 and 20 weeks, and less than 1% were performed at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy. The figures are based on reports by health agencies throughout the U.S., although California, Maryland and New Hampshire did not report. Miller-Meeks’ office did not respond to requests for comment on this story. Our ruling Mariannette Miller-Meeks said the Democrats’ Women’s Health Protection Act of 2022 "would permit abortion up until delivery." The bill, which passed the U.S. House but is considered unlikely to win approval in the Senate, would permit abortion up to delivery, but only in limited cases — when medical professionals determine that an abortion is necessary to save the life or the health of the mother. Such situations account for a tiny fraction of all abortions, federal data shows. Ignoring this qualifier is misleading. The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression, so we rate it Mostly Fals

"Karrin Taylor Robson gave illegals tuition discounts and made us pay for it. In the Republican primary race for Arizona governor, Kari Lake, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, claimed that one of her opponents, Karrin Taylor Robson, is "anti-America First." In a 30-second TV ad that Lake tweeted July 7, she said Robson "gave illegals tuition discounts and made us pay for it." .@Karrin4Arizona is trying to lie and buy her way into office.But her record shows her true colors: Pro-Amenesty & Anti-America First.Our new Ad highlights her betrayal of the American people. Share this if you're DONE with backstabbers & ready for the America First agenda. pic.twitter.com/E0xff6OOtE— Kari Lake for AZ Governor (@KariLake) July 8, 2022 Lake also made the claim July 6 on Steve Bannon’s podcast "War Room," saying Robson "voted to give illegal immigrants a reduced tuition less than what American students had to pay." Robson served on the Arizona Board of Regents, the governing body of Arizona's public university system, from 2017 to 2021. Lake’s campaign said the claim is based on three Arizona Board of Regents votes on tuition for students in the country illegally. The claim is partly accurate. Students in the U.S. illegally who graduate from an Arizona high school qualify for a reduced out-of-state tuition rate in Arizona’s public universities — the board, including Robson, voted to allow this. (They do not qualify for in-state tuition.) But this reduced out-of-state tuition is unsubsidized, meaning taxpayers do not pay for it. Also, the discounted rate isn’t available only to immigrants illegally in the country. U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents are also eligible if they meet the specified requirements. How tuition criteria has changed over the years In-state tuition for Arizona students in the U.S. illegally has undergone years of legal challenges. A 2006 Arizona ballot initiative, Proposition 300, prohibited in-state tuition for students in the U.S. illegally. However, in 2012 the Obama administration created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which prevents the deportation of immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally as children. As a result, the Maricopa County Community College District began offering eligible DACA students in-state tuition, by accepting their employment authorization as evidence of residency. In 2013, then-Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne sued Maricopa Community College District over this decision, saying it violated Proposition 300. A Maricopa County Superior Court in 2015 ruled that extending in-state tuition to DACA recipients was not illegal. That same year, the Arizona Board of Regents voted to allow in-state tuition for eligible DACA students. Robson was not on the board at the time. In June 2017, the Arizona Court of Appeals struck down the lower court ruling, saying DACA beneficiaries were not eligible for in-state tuition. Maricopa Community Colleges appealed the decision to the Arizona Supreme Court. That same month, on one of Robson’s first days on the Arizona Board of Regents, the board voted 7-1 to continue providing in-state tuition for DACA students while the case was under litigation. Robson supported the measure. Featured Fact-check Mark Finchem stated on October 9, 2022 in a rally The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” By Amy Sherman • October 17, 2022 In 2018, the Arizona Supreme Court agreed with the appeals court and ruled that DACA students were ineligible for in-state tuition. In response, the Board of Regents prohibited in-state tuition for DACA students, but turned to a 2015 board rule that allowed it to provide lower tuition costs for Arizona’s DACA recipients. That rule created an unsubsidized "high-school graduate nonresident tuition rate," of 150% of in-state tuition for students who were ineligible for in-state tuition but met a set of criteria. The rate became an option for students who met all three requirements below: Attended an Arizona high school for at least three years; Graduated from an Arizona high school; and Were "lawfully present" in Arizona. (DACA recipients are considered to be "lawfully present;" that’s not the same as having legal status.) In 2019, the board unanimously voted to amend the 2015 policy so that all students who live illegally in Arizona, not just DACA recipients, are also eligible for the reduced nonresident rate. Currently, in-state tuition at Arizona State University, one of the three public universities the board oversees, is about $13,000 a year. Nonresident tuition is around $19,000 a year, and the out-of-state tuition cost is $32,000 a year. In 2021, the board, in a symbolic vote, affirmed its support for legislation that makes DACA recipients and other Arizona high school graduates eligible for in-state tuition. This vote did not change any policies. In November, Arizonans will vote on a measure seeking a partial repeal of Proposition 300. Arizona taxpayers do not pay for the nonresident tuition rate Lake’s ad misleads voters by claiming that Robson’s votes placed the tuition costs on taxpayers. A student who is eligible for the reduced tuition rate is responsible for paying it. Students in the U.S. illegally are ineligible for federal financial aid, and in Arizona, because of Proposition 300, they are also ineligible for state-funded financial aid. These students rely on their own money and private assistance to pay for college. Arizona spends less than most states on higher education, according to data from the Urban Institute. A large part of Arizona’s higher education funding comes from tuition payments, not taxpayer dollars. All students who graduate from an Arizona high school, regardless of their immigration status, are eligible for the discounted out-of-state tuition rate if they meet all required criteria. Our ruling Lake claimed that Robson "gave illegals tuition discounts and made us pay for it." While on the Board of Regents, Robson voted to allow DACA students to continue paying in-state tuition while a case over their eligibility for this rate was resolved in the courts. She also voted to allow students in the U.S. illegally to qualify for a lowered out-of-state tuition rate if they meet other requirements. This tuition is unsubsidized, meaning the government does not pay for it. Students illegally in the country are not eligible for financial aid or student loans. We rate this claim Half Tru

You can't pour water on flames from an electric car battery because “water makes lithium burn. Electric vehicles have received widespread praise from climate activists and President Joe Biden, but some social media users are not sold. One user lobbed a barrage of criticism against such vehicles in a lengthy Facebook post shared thousands of times. "The problem with crashing any (electric vehicle) is that if you are trapped, you're dead, as it is impossible to remove victims," reads the July 22 post. "Also can't put a battery fire out. Water makes lithium burn." The post was flagged as part of Facebook's efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) This isn’t a new line of criticism in opposition to electric vehicles. Variations of the post have surfaced elsewhere on Facebook. It takes a lot of water to extinguish an electric vehicle fire, but the suggestion that it would cause such a blaze to burn further is wrong. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 Lithium-ion batteries, which are used in electric cars, have been used in smaller electronic devices, including cellphones, laptops and electric toothbrushes, for years. All batteries, including lithium-ion batteries, use positive and negative electrodes and an electrolyte solution, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. What makes a lithium-ion battery more difficult to extinguish is its use of a highly flammable organic electrolyte, Reuters reported. U.S. authorities have conducted a substantial amount of research on how to extinguish lithium-ion batteries. In 2013, the Fire Protection Research Foundation — sponsored by the U.S. Energy Department — found that water can be used to put out a burning lithium-ion battery. However, it requires copious amounts to complete the task. It took more than 2,600 gallons of water to extinguish one of the battery test fires carried out by the researchers. That's almost enough to fill a 12-foot round swimming pool. Further, the report found that "the use of water does not present an electrical hazard to firefighting personnel." There are also real-world examples of how such fires were extinguished. In 2021, NBC reported that when a Tesla caught on fire after it crashed in Houston, it was extinguished with water — 28,000 gallons, to be exact. The Facebook post’s sweeping assertion that water can’t be used to extinguish a fire from an electric vehicle is inaccurate. We rate it Fals

“Know what they always find in Alzheimer’s patients? Excessive aluminum in the brain. Know what makes your body hoard aluminum? Fluoride. A favorite boogeyman — fluoride — is at the center of social media claims that it can contribute to Alzheimer’s disease. "Know what they always find in Alzheimer’s patients?" asks a July 26 post on Facebook. "Excessive aluminum in the brain. Know what makes your body hoard aluminum? Fluoride." The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) But evidence does not support the claim that aluminum is increased in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, or that aluminum is a cause of the disease, according to Alzheimer’s organizations. And fluoride that’s added to drinking water and toothpaste is safe and beneficial. The idea that Alzheimer’s and aluminum might be linked first came to light in 1965, when "researchers found that rabbits injected with an extremely high dose of aluminum developed toxic tau tangles in their brains," according to Alzheimer’s Society, a United Kingdom nonprofit. (Tau tangles are large accumulations of microscopic brain protein fragments that slow someone’s ability to think and remember.) However, the result occurred only when the rabbits had extremely high exposures to aluminum that "far exceed the levels that can enter the body" through food or everyday sources such as aluminum cookware. Since then, despite continuing research, "there is no solid evidence that aluminum is increased in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease," the society reported. "No convincing relationship between (the) amount of exposure or aluminum in the body and the development of Alzheimer's disease has been established." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 Other Alzheimer’s groups in the U.S., such as the Alzheimer’s Association and Bright Focus Foundation, concur, with the former noting, "Studies have failed to confirm any role for aluminum in causing Alzheimer’s." Fluoride, meanwhile, is considered safe in both drinking water and toothpaste, which are the main ways people consume it. Our ruling A Facebook post says, "Know what they always find in Alzheimer’s patients? Excessive aluminum in the brain. Know what makes your body hoard aluminum? Fluoride." However, evidence does not support the claim that aluminum is increased in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, or that aluminum is a cause of the disease. And fluoride is considered safe in both drinking water and toothpaste, which are the main ways people consume it. We rate this claim False.

A cure for cancer, known as a Rife machine, was found in 1934 Did the science behind glass-shattering opera singers lead to a century-old cancer cure? A viral image on Facebook suggests yes, writing that an American scientist named Royal Raymond Rife "knew that everything vibrates at its own natural frequency." Believing that if "he could discover the frequencies of disease-causing organisms, he could destroy them with the same vibrational frequency." The image goes on to claim that the device he invented — today known as a Rife machine — can cure cancer. But, the device is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and the American Cancer Society, Cancer Research UK, Medical News Today and WebMD have all reported that there is no reliable scientific evidence that the device works as a cure for cancer. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) (Screenshot from Facebook) Rife machines, used in alternative medicine clinics today, emit low electromagnetic energy waves, similar to radio waves. The waves are delivered to the body via electrical pads on the hands and feet or through handheld plasma tubes. WebMD reports that these devices are generally safe. According to a 1994 report from the American Cancer Society titled "Questionable Methods of Cancer Management," Rife based his device on an unsubstantiated medical theory called "radionics." The theory was promoted by Dr. Albert Abrams who practiced in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He believed that he could build a device that would detect the radio frequencies of diseases and cure people by emitting "disease destroying vibrations" at the same frequencies. He died in 1924, failing to cure himself of pneumonia or either of his wives’ cancer. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 But Rife, who believed that cancer was caused by bacteria, created such a device based on the principles of radionics naming it the Rife Frequency Generator. Rife also invented several microscopes and believed he "could visualize the auras of living microbes … (and), use the color of the auras to calculate the electromagnetic frequency of these microbes." But the science behind it was flawed. "Although sound waves can produce vibrations that will break glass, radio waves cannot destroy bacteria due to their low energy level," wrote the ACS in the 1994 report. The device regained popularity in the late 1980s and 1990s with the publishing of a book titled, "The Cancer Cure that Worked, 50 Years of Suppression." While Rife clinics still exist, several practitioners have been convicted of fraud and sued for treating cancer patients with or selling devices similar to Rife machines. Recent research has begun to explore the effect of radio frequencies on cancer cells, but research is in early stages, and uses different frequencies than the Rife machine used. "There is evidence that application of some radio frequencies can have favorable results. However, the human body, or even a cancer cell, is an extremely complicated system," said Ivan Brezovich, one of the study's researchers and professor emeritus at the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Alabama. "There are countless variables that need to be fully explored, such as what frequency or frequencies should be used, when should they be applied, at what intensity, at what body parts, for what types of cancer, etc." Brezovich believes that more research must be done and believes that "patients should not forgo a proven method of treatment until a new modality has been verified in a scientific setting." A miraculous cure for cancer would be wonderful, but there is not currently evidence that Rife machines are that miracle. We rate this claim Fals

Baby carrots are soaked in bleach and can cause cancer Baby carrots may be best enjoyed with ranch dressing. But according to a Facebook post, they’ve been dipped in something far more deadly. In a video posted to Facebook, nutritional consultant Louis Smith said baby carrots are soaked in bleach, and therefore linked to cancer. "Did you know that little baby carrots aren't baby carrots? They're normally fully grown carrots shaped to look like a baby carrot, and then soaked in bleach or some kind of chemical to increase their shelf life from 24 hours to about eight or nine months, and that chemical could really aggravate cancer and harm your body," Smith said. The video was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Smith, who is described on his LinkedIn profile as a nutritional consultant and entrepreneur, has a large following on Facebook and other social media platforms. However, his business page gives the caveat that the statements from his company "have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration," and "are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease." We reached out to Smith to ask for more information, but did not receive a response. He’s partly correct in saying that baby carrots are made from longer carrots, and, as is the case with many vegetables sold commercially, are subjected to a highly diluted wash in bleach and chlorine. But the claim that they are "soaked" in bleach and are tied to cancer takes things a few steps too far. Overall, these carrots are safe to consume. Soohyoun Ahn, a lecturer in food science and human nutrition at the University of Florida and founder of the Florida Food Entrepreneurship, a program that helps provide beginning and established food entrepreneurs with information needed to run their businesses, confirmed that baby carrots come from longer ones. Thin carrots are harvested separately, she said, and then cut down and shaped into baby ones. "It is just a processing, and there is no harm in cutting and shaping. And carrots that (the) baby carrots are made of are thin ones, so it is very likely they would not be sold as regular carrots in the market anyway," Ahn said. "So, I personally believe this is a great way to use foods without creating any waste." The baby carrots soaked in chemicals rumor is one that’s gone around before — Snopes fact-checked it in 2008 and the website Have A Plant, run by the nonprofit organization Produce For Better Health Foundation, published an article. Both groups said baby carrots do get a wash in a diluted chlorine bleach solution, but that it evaporates quickly and the carrots are rinsed. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post Proposed Senate bill would give FDA power to approve dietary supplements and “ban herbs.” By Jeff Cercone • October 27, 2022 "The amount of chlorine used is similar to that in public drinking water and poses no health risk," Have A Plant wrote. Ahn said this type of washing isn’t just limited to carrots. Many vegetables get this type of cleaning, she said. "Many vegetables (especially those that are ready to eat or packaged as prewashed) are washed with chlorinated (bleach) water for sanitization," Ahn wrote to us, explaining that the concentration of bleach is strictly kept under federal regulations. "As long as the bleach solution concentration is under the limit set by the regulation, using bleach solution to sanitize raw vegetable is perfectly legal." Many fresh produce have microorganisms on their surfaces when they’re harvested, Ahn said. Even though the fruits and vegetables have been processed and rinsed with a diluted bleach solution, it’s good to rinse them again after buying them to make sure there is no bleach on the surface. "This is why consumers must wash their fruits and vegetables before consumption!" she told us. "So sanitizing them (especially if they will be processed into a product — such as salad mix, precut carrots etc.) is critical for food safety reasons." In 2021, baby carrots were recalled for safety reasons. But not because they had been oversanitized — it was because of salmonella contamination, something that "again clearly shows the importance of sanitizing raw vegetables!" said Ahn. Carrots are a good source of beta carotene, fiber, vitamin K1, potassium and carotenoids, which the Cleveland Clinic describes as an antioxidant pigment that "may help protect against prostate, colon and stomach cancer." Our ruling A Facebook video said baby carrots are soaked in bleach and can cause cancer. A nutritional expert said baby carrots are shaped from longer, thinner carrots that are unlikely to be sold as is on the market. They are washed in a diluted solution with bleach, but are rinsed off. The solution is safe under federal regulations, and is no more harmful than the chlorine solution in tap water. We rate this claim Fals

In its July “red alert” for extreme heat, the U.K.'s Met Office warned that high temperatures could cause blood clotting The United Kingdom has been hot this summer — super, super hot. It’s been so hot that U.K.’s health and meteorology agencies have issued unprecedented heat warnings. But contrary to some social media posts, these agencies have not warned that extreme heat would heighten the risk of blood clots. Recently, an image has been making the rounds claiming that the U.K.’s Meteorological Office, a weather and climate office, has warned that temperatures in the "high 20s and 30s Celsius" (or 68 degrees and 86 degrees Fahrenheit) is causing blood clotting. It shows a headline from The Telegraph stating "‘Your blood thickens and then clots:’ What extreme heat can do to your body." This is the social media preview headline for an article in The Telegraph, and it was previously a headline on the article itself, although now the headline is different. The image appeared on Facebook, where it was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The U.K.’s Meteorological Office, or Met Office, did issue its first-ever red extreme heat warning beacuse of temperature forecasts of 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) and above. Red is the highest-level warning for the Met office, indicating it is "very likely that there will be a risk to life, with substantial disruption to travel, energy supplies and possibly widespread damage to property and infrastructure." However, PolitiFact found no Met statements that mentioned blood clots. A press representative at the Met Office wrote in an email to PolitiFact: "I’m not aware of any claims we made about blood clots ourselves, but they might be getting slightly confused with the U.K. Health Security Agency Level 4 Warning — which would have spoken more about potential health impacts (as it’s designed for the health industry)." But the Level 4 alert from the Health Security Agency doesn’t mention blood clots, either. Cardiovascular diseases and respiratory illnesses are among the more common causes of death from excessive heat; however, dehydration, heat exhaustion and heatstroke are bigger concerns overall. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls heatstroke "the most serious heat-related illness." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in a video Video shows “California sets their own forest fires and claims them as climate change effects.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 That said, there was some truth in the initial headline of the Telegraph article captured in the screenshot. Although the headline "your blood thickens and clots" was framed in a way that sounds absolute, heat does sometimes cause blood clots, including fatal ones. In 2017, the American Heart Association published a study about the danger of heat waves. Dr. Camilo Mora, lead author on the study and professor of geography and the environment at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, confirmed that heat waves can and do cause fatal blood clots. "Perishing during a heatwave is like a slow torture with 27 endings to choose from," he wrote. A study released May 19, 2022, analyzed excess deaths because of heat in the contiguous U.S. from 2008 to 2017. The findings state that "each additional extreme heat day in a month was associated with (a) 0.07 additional death per 100,000 adults." A 2014 study found that the most common excess hospital admissions during extreme heat events were for "fluid and electrolyte disorders." The National Institutes of Health wrote on July 21, 2022, that heat can put excess stress on the cardiovascular system, which "can lead to a faster heart rate and an increase in inflammatory markers related to severe blood clotting." Some people who shared or commented on these social media posts indicated they suspected a cover-up for blood clotting that is actually caused by the COVID-19 vaccines. This may be because there were rare cases of blood clots linked to the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines, the latter of which is not approved for use in the United States. But that link is small. Getting COVID-19 carries a risk of blood clots 8 to 10 times higher than the risk from the mRNA vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna. According to an April 2022 report, deep vein thrombosis, particularly blood clots in the leg, occurs four times more often in COVID-19 patients (0.4%) than in the control (0.1%). About 20% of people who end up in the intensive care unit because of COVID-19 develop blood clots, which is much higher than people in the ICU for other reasons. Our ruling Social media posts claim that the U.K.’s Meteorological Office warned about blood clots with extreme heat. While blood clots are not the most common adverse effect of extreme heat waves, they can and do happen. However, the U.K.’s Met Office did not warn about blood clots, as that office focuses on meteorology rather than health. We rate the claim Fals

"A Jackson, Tennessee, employee passed out this morning from handling a dollar bill with fentanyl on it. Could someone overdose from simply touching an item with fentanyl on it? Medical experts say no, but that hasn’t stopped some from warning of the danger. "Y’all be careful out there. Apparently a Jackson, Tenn. employee passed out this morning from handling a dollar bill with fentanyl on it," a July 21 post reads. "Heard rumors of a 2nd store but haven't 100% confirmed that one." The warning is light on details. It doesn’t say where in Jackson the employee worked or what happened after the employee passed out. However, medical experts have said it’s highly unlikely for people to overdose on fentanyl or react so severely to it after touching it with their skin. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that has been linked to a rise in overdose deaths in the United States. Nearly 108,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2021, with 71,000 of those deaths being linked to synthetic opioids like fentanyl, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The drug can be up to 100 times stronger than morphine and is typically used to treat severe pain following surgery. It can also be prescribed to help resolve chronic pain for people who have developed tolerance to other opioids. Whereas prescription fentanyl is available as an injection, patch or lozenge, illegal fentanyl can be sold as a powder or liquid. Fentanyl is cheap to produce, its effects are potent and it’s often mixed with other drugs such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine to deliver a more intense and addictive high while using less of the other substances, the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported. Depending on the fentanyl’s purity and the user’s tolerance, just 2 milligrams of the substance can be fatal. The drug’s lethality and prevalence have prompted law enforcement agencies to issue warnings, particularly advising people against picking up suspicious-looking money they find on the ground because it could be covered in the substance. One such warning came from Johnie Carter, director of the West Tennessee Violent Crime Drug Task Force, who on July 20 told WBBJ-TV in Jackson, Tennessee, that people shouldn’t touch rolled-up banknotes because they might have been used to snort fentanyl. "I wouldn’t want to pick (it) up, especially with bare hands and no type of respiratory equipment," Carter said. We were unable to find any recent news stories or social media posts from law enforcement agencies about Jackson area incidents that would have prompted Carter’s message or the Facebook post. The Jackson Police Department did not immediately respond to PolitiFact’s request for comment. But, about 70 miles east of Jackson, the Perry County Sheriff's Office in Linden, Tennessee, issued a June 8 public service announcement on Facebook regarding two instances of fentanyl- and methamphetamine-laced money found on a gas station floor. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told PolitiFact an employee at the gas station reported the suspicious money and threw one of the bills away. The remaining bill tested positive for the drugs. At no point did the employee report being ill, and the sheriff’s office spokesperson said the post was meant to warn residents to be careful. Other claims of people becoming ill after accidentally touching fentanyl made headlines in San Diego and Nashville, Tennssee, in the last year. But in each case, authorities who investigated the circumstances of the contact did not conclusively find that simply touching the substance resulted in illness. Medical experts say it’s highly unlikely someone who unwittingly touches a fentanyl-laced dollar will overdose on the drug. Although powdered fentanyl can be absorbed through the skin, the American College of Medical Toxicology and the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology said in a joint statement in 2017 that the amount that enters a person’s system would not be enough to make that person feel the fentanyl’s effects, let alone overdose. Most of the drug would remain unabsorbed on the skin and could be easily brushed off or washed away without ill effect. "It is very unlikely that small, unintentional skin exposures to tablets or powder would cause significant opioid toxicity, and if toxicity were to occur, it would not develop rapidly, allowing time for removal," the statement said. The symptoms reported by people who encountered fentanyl-laced money — dizziness, fainting, chest pains, blurred vision and anxiety — are also inconsistent with symptoms from opioid overdoses, which include slowed breathing, gradual loss of consciousness and constricting pupils. Prescription fentanyl patches made specifically to administer the drug through the skin would take 12 to 16 hours to deliver a significant amount of the drug to the bloodstream, so the chances of overdosing by touching a laced bill is remote, said Dr. Lewis Nelson, professor and chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine and chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. Nelson told Reuters the symptoms people reported experiencing in stories about incidental fentanyl exposure are more consistent with stress or anxiety than drug overdoses. Dr. Ryan Marino, medical director of toxicology and addiction medicine at University Hospitals in Cleveland, told The New York Times the only way for someone to overdose on fentanyl is by actively "injecting, snorting or some other way of ingesting it." Our ruling A Facebook post claimed a worker in Jackson, Tennessee, passed out from touching a dollar bill that was covered in fentanyl. We were unable to find any supporting evidence of the Jackson incident being reported to authorities or ever happening. But similar cases in the past have been reported in the media. Medical experts have said the risk of becoming ill from fentanyl after touching an item covered in the drug is remote. Only a small amount of the drug would ever get absorbed through the skin and not nearly enough to cause opioid toxicity symptoms from developing, let alone an overdose. Symptoms reported by people who said they were exposed to fentanyl are also not consistent with opioid toxicity and are more in line with stress or anxiety, experts said. We rate this Fals

“‘Monkeypox’ is only circulating in countries where the Pfizer vaccine has been distributed and is being used to advance a Technocratic Great Reset. How are monkeypox cases, COVID-19 vaccines and shingles infections connected? They are not. But if you believe claims circulating online, they are linked to a group of global elites that is using the coronavirus "as a tool to reorganize global societies and economies to their benefit at the expense of ordinary people, with the ultimate goal of a global totalitarian regime," according to the Anti-Defamation League. Those claims are part of "The Great Reset" conspiracy theory, which PolitiFact has repeatedly debunked. Other news outlets have also dismissed the idea as unsubstantiated. One article pushing the narrative that monkeypox is tied to this conspiracy theory appeared on The Exposé, a U.K.-focused blog that has repeatedly spread misinformation about the pandemic and COVID-19 vaccine. "‘Monkeypox’ is only circulating in countries where the Pfizer vaccine has been distributed and is being used to advance a Technocratic Great Reset," read a July 24 Exposé headline. The article claimed that the monkeypox outbreak is actually shingles cases caused by Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines. "We’re seeing the consequences of injecting millions of people with an experimental mRNA injection that causes untold damage to the immune system," the article said. "And public health authorities are now scrambling to cover up COVID-19 vaccine-induced shingles and using it as an opportunity to advance their technocratic agenda of implementing ‘The Great Reset.’" The article was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Available evidence directly rebuts the article’s claims. COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine, marketed as Comirnaty, in August 2021 became the first COVID-19 vaccine to achieve full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Millions of people have received the two-dose Pfizer vaccine, which is a safe and effective way to prevent COVID-19. A nurse gives a child, aged 5, the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Nov. 6, 2021. This was the first time children aged 5 to 11 across the United States had the opportunity to get immunized against COVID-19. (AP) In the seven days after vaccination, it is common to experience mild side effects including fever, chills, fatigue or headaches, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More severe side effects — including severe allergic reactions or myocarditis and pericarditis (especially for males ages 12 to 39) — are rare but can happen. Some countries reporting monkeypox cases aren’t using the Pfizer vaccine Pfizer told PolitiFact it had agreements to provide its vaccine to more than 140 countries. As of July 28, cases of monkeypox have been reported in 77 countries, including 71 countries that have not historically reported monkeypox, the CDC reported. A map on Pfizer’s website shows where it has shipped vaccines, and a map on the CDC’s site also shows monkeypox cases around the world. Comparing these maps shows that the article’s claim that monkeypox is "only circulating" where the Pfizer vaccine was distributed is false. Venezuela reported one case of monkeypox as of July 28, but Pfizer’s map does not show any shipments of COVID-19 vaccines. Venezuela has approved the use of Russian COVID-19 vaccines Sputnik V and Sputnik Light, Cuba’s Abdala and Soberana COVID-19 vaccines and the Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines from China, according to the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 India reported four cases of monkeypox as of July 28. Pfizer has not sent COVID-19 vaccines to India, according to its map last updated July 3. India is currently distributing four vaccines, per the BBC: the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, Corbevax, Covaxin and Sputnik V. Also, not all the countries that received Pfizer vaccines have reported monkeypox cases. As of July 28, for example, Indonesia has not reported any monkeypox cases, but Pfizer has shipped nearly 69 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine there. A medical worker shows vials of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination campaign at the Patriot Candrabhaga Stadium in Bekasi on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, on Feb. 8, 2022. (AP)​ Monkeypox and shingles differ in many ways The CDC tracks adverse events reported after COVID-19 vaccinations, and has not indicated that the vaccines cause shingles. Nearly 10,000 cases of shingles have been reported to the CDC and FDA’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System after doses of the Pfizer vaccine. This does not mean the vaccines caused shingles. VAERS is an open system, meaning anyone can submit a report to the database, "regardless of seriousness, and regardless of how likely the vaccine may have been to have caused the adverse event," per the CDC. On one occasion, a doctor said he’d submitted a report that a flu vaccine had turned him into the Hulk; that report was accepted and remained in the database for some time, he said. Pfizer said it has not seen data that suggests its COVID-19 vaccine causes shingles. Monkeypox and shingles cause skin rashes, but they look different on the body. Shingles causes a painful rash that typically "occurs in a single stripe around either the left or the right side of the body" or on one side of the face, according to the CDC. In contrast, monkeypox causes "a rash that can look like pimples or blisters that appears on the face, inside the mouth, and on other parts of the body, like the hands, feet, chest, genitals, or anus." This image provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases shows a colorized transmission electron micrograph of monkeypox particles (red) found within an infected cell (blue). (NIAID via AP) The diseases are also caused by different viruses: Monkeypox is caused by an orthopoxvirus; shingles is caused by reactivation of the varicella zoster virus that also causes chickenpox. Our ruling A blog post claimed that monkeypox "is only circulating in countries where the Pfizer vaccine has been distributed and is being used to advance a Technocratic Great Reset." "The Great Reset" is an unsubstantiated and widely debunked conspiracy theory. Monkeypox has been reported in countries that don’t have Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. And there are countries that received Pfizer’s vaccine that have not yet reported monkeypox cases. We rate this claim False. RELATED: ​​Shingles-monkeypox claim misleads with false flu-COVID-19 theory RELATED: No, the COVID-19 vaccines are not weapons of mass destruction RELATED: Federal VAERS database is a critical tool for researchers, but a breeding ground for misinformati

“Three doctors from the same hospital ‘die suddenly’ in the same week,” after the hospital mandated a fourth COVID-19 vaccine for employees A renewed push for COVID-19 booster shots has also ushered in a new wave of misinformation, with social media posts suggesting that the vaccine booster was linked to the sudden deaths of doctors at one hospital in Canada. "Three doctors from the same hospital ‘die suddenly’ in the same week," after the hospital mandated a fourth COVID-19 vaccine for employees, said a July 28 post on Instagram by The Gateway Pundit, a conservative website. The caption also said, "The hospital claimed that the social media rumor that their deaths were related to the COVID-19 vaccination is ‘simply not true.’" The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) What the Instagram post does not mention is that two of the doctors who died had previously been diagnosed with cancer, according to an obituary and media reports. And the third doctor had been seriously ill, though his diagnosis was not disclosed, CTV News Toronto reported. Trillium Health Partners, which operates the hospital where the doctors worked, said in a July 27 tweet that the deaths were not linked to the COVID-19 vaccine. "It is with deep sadness that THP mourns the loss of three of our physicians who recently passed away," the hospital tweeted. "Dr. Jakub Sawicki, Dr. Stephen McKenzie and Dr. Lorne Segall were respected physicians who dedicated their lives to caring for their patients and community." The tweet continued, "The rumour circulating on social media is simply not true. Their passings were not related to the COVID-19 vaccine." Trillium Health Partners’ website says it has three main sites: Credit Valley Hospital, Mississauga Hospital and Queensway Health Centre. It is unclear from media reports whether all three doctors practiced at the same hospital sites. The deaths appeared to occur in a short timeframe: Segall died on July 17; McKenzie on July 18; and while the exact date of Sawicki’s death was not clear, a memorial notice was distributed on July 21 and the funeral was held the next day, CTV News Toronto reported. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 The Instagram post said the doctors "died suddenly," but details about their illnesses do not support that claim: Sawicki’s wife said "her husband’s diagnosis of Stage 4 Gastric Cancer, Signet Ring Cell Adenocarcinoma, one of the most aggressive forms of stomach cancer, came as a shock last August," CTV News Toronto reported on July 27. McKenzie’s office said "he had been ‘seriously ill’ leading up to his death and his office was permanently closed," according to CTV News Toronto. "The nature of his illness was not disclosed." Segall’s obituary said he died "after a ridiculously unfair and hard fought year-long battle with advanced lung cancer." Our ruling An Instagram post says, "Three doctors from the same hospital ‘die suddenly’ in the same week," after the hospital mandated a fourth COVID-19 vaccine for employees. The deaths were not sudden; two of the doctors had been previously diagnosed with cancer and the third had been seriously ill with an undisclosed ailment. The hospital where the doctors worked said the deaths were not linked to COVID-19 vaccines. We rate this claim False.

In 2020, “250,000 ballots were manufactured” in Georgia and “Biden was given win” by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperge The midterms are about 100 days away, but allies of former President Donald Trump continue to promote false theories that election workers in key states shuffled Trump’s votes to President Joe Biden in 2020. That did not happen. Many of the falsehoods zero in on Georgia, where Biden won by about 12,000 votes. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, has defended the security of the election. A July 22 headline on the website Gateway Pundit, which has promoted election misinformation, said: "SHOCKING: On November 4th, 2020, Georgia showed 100% reporting and TRUMP WON – then 250,000 ballots were manufactured and Biden was given win by Raffensperger days later." The article was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The Gateway Pundit’s headline attributed the information to Voter GA, a group led by Garland Favorito, who filed a lawsuit alleging counterfeit ballots were used in Fulton County in 2020. State investigators were unable to substantiate the allegations, and a judge dismissed the lawsuit. Trump and his allies have attacked Raffensperger because he refused to go along with Trump’s pleas to "find" him more votes. Raffensperger defeated a Trump-backed candidate in the state’s May primary and will face Democratic state Rep. Bee Nguyen in November. Results the morning after election are unofficial, don’t include all ballots The gist of these claims stems from a brief interview Raffensperger gave to "Today" on Nov. 4, 2020, the morning after the election. Raffensperger told the show that his state still had "about two percent" left to count out of 4.7 million votes. "I don't think it will change any of the outcomes," he said, adding that he would leave speculation to people who predict elections. As "Today" displayed a graphic showing Trump was ahead in Georgia by about 100,000 votes, MSNBC’s Chuck Todd noted that they still had to count some ballots in areas favorable to Democrats. Later that morning, Raffensperger told reporters that there were 200,000 ballots left to count, including absentee and early votes. On the morning of Nov. 4, the state’s website for election results showed Trump was ahead. But there results from 13 precincts were still uncounted. A disclaimer at the top of the page stated: "Unofficial results — totals may not include all absentees or provisional ballots." That disclaimer is key, particularly in 2020, when voting by mail proved popular because of COVID-19. Later in the week, the state website showed all precincts had been counted. Even then, the website still had the disclaimer about absentee and provisional ballots. Trump’s lead shrank as more ballots were counted. By Nov. 6, 2020, the unofficial showed Biden had narrowly pulled ahead. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post The documentary “2,000 Mules proves” Democrats “cheated on the 2020 elections.” By Jon Greenberg • October 28, 2022 The Associated Press didn’t call Georgia for Biden until about two weeks after Election Day as it waited for the results of another count. When the final results were certified on Nov. 20, Biden won Georgia by about 12,000 votes. The Gateway Pundit article repeatedly and wrongly refers to Raffensperger as "corrupt." If a state election official "manufactured" ballots, that would be a crime. More than 20 months after Election Day, no court, law enforcement agency or election office has found such evidence. It also defies logic that Raffensperger, a Republican, would participate in a felonious scheme to help a Democrat win the presidency. In leaked audio released by Mother Jones earlier this month, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon is heard telling associates in October 2020 that Trump was aware that the slow counting of mail-in ballots would mean the returns would likely show early Trump leads in key states. "What Trump’s gonna do is just declare victory. Right? He’s gonna declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s a winner," Bannon is heard saying. Georgia’s results were affirmed by three separate counts. PolitiFact was one of many news outlets before the 2020 election that told voters to be patient while awaiting results and that early winners may not be the final winners. State laws include timelines for officials to count ballots, including by mail, provisionals and overseas ballots. Those same lessons about not leaping to conclusions about partial or unofficial results apply to the midterms. Our ruling The Gateway Pundit wrote that in 2020, "250,000 ballots were manufactured" and the Georgia secretary of state, Raffensperger, improperly awarded the state to Joe Biden. The article relies on unofficial results released the morning after Election Day to suggest a criminal intervention on Biden’s behalf. What really happened was that the total number of ballots for Biden grew as they were counted, flipping the state’s electoral votes from Trump to Biden. This is not a sign of "manufactured" ballots; it is a sign that it takes time for election officials to lawfully count all ballots. Raffensperger followed the law in certifying those final results. We rate this statement Pants on Fire! RELATED: Trump’s Pants on Fire distortion about Georgia’s voter rolls RELATED: All of our fact-checks about Georgia RELATED: All of our fact-checks about elections RELATED: Georgia’s David Perdue said elections were stolen from him and Trump. Pants on Fire!

“The legislature has long maintained that the law never allowed these illegal drop boxes. On July 8, 2022, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the use of drop boxes to collect absentee ballots was illegal. It was a victory for Wisconsin Republicans, who now oppose the longstanding use of drop boxes — a voting approach that had grown increasingly popular during the coronavirus pandemic, including the 2020 presidential election. Former President Donald Trump has heavily criticized drop boxes in his continued baseless allegations that fraudulent voting led to his reelection loss that year. (Multiple lawsuits, recounts and audits have failed to turn up evidence of widespread voting fraud. Trump even claimed the court’s ruling was retroactive to 2020, which we rated Pants on Fire.) Assembly Speaker Robin Vos was among those cheering the court ruling, tweeting: "The legislature has long maintained that the law never allowed these illegal drop boxes and we’re happy to be vindicated by today’s decision." But some were skeptical of the first part of his statement, questioning just how long the party held that stance and pointing to an instance two years ago where Vos had advocated for the use of drop boxes. Let’s check it out. Letter on behalf of Vos says he ‘wholeheartedly supports’ secured drop boxes When Vos tweeted the sentiment, another Twitter user quote-tweeted his statement with the caption: "This you?" That tweet featured a Sept. 25, 2020, letter that Vos and then-Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald sent through a lawyer to Maribeth Witzel-Behl, Madison’s city clerk, before two "Democracy in the Park" events that were held in September and October 2020. At the events, more than 17,000 voters dropped off absentee ballots at stations set up in Madison’s 206 city parks. The events were staffed by poll workers who had either worked in the past or were scheduled to work the Nov. 3, 2020, election. The Supreme Court decision, which said that state law does not permit drop boxes anywhere other than election clerk offices, and that the boxes have to be manned at all times, would render future events like that illegal. The Vos and Fitzgerald letter, the one sent before the events, decries what they describe as the "imminent, illegal collection of absentee ballots" at the events. (Vos spokesperson Angela Joyce told us Vos was concerned that at the events, ballots "were received in an unsecured manner with no clear statutory authority to do so.") The letter suggested that voters instead use other available methods of returning their ballots. Specifically, among the approaches they suggested: Dropping ballots in "authorized ‘drop boxes,’ which ‘must be secured and locked at all times’ to protect ballot integrity." As a reference, the letter cites an Aug. 19, 2020, memo from Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe describing absentee ballot drop box information. "We wholeheartedly support any of these convenient, secure and expressly authorized absentee-ballot-return methods," the letter says. Featured Fact-check Tim Michels stated on October 24, 2022 in News conference Tony Evers “wants to let out between 9,000 and 10,000 more” Wisconsin prisoners By Madeline Heim • November 4, 2022 Now, it’s important to pause here and note what kinds of drop boxes were authorized at the time. The memo from Wolfe outlines a handful of locations for municipalities to offer drop boxes. In addition to the clerk’s office, it instructs them to be placed in "convenient, accessible locations, including places close to public transportation routes, near or on college campuses, and public buildings, such as libraries and community centers familiar to voters and easy to find." Since the letter from Vos and Fitzgerald cites this particular guidance and notes that they "wholeheartedly support" the methods they listed, it would seem that they supported such drop boxes at locations other than the clerk’s office, as long as they were secured and locked. According to an affidavit from Wolfe, the commission was aware of 528 drop boxes across the state in 2020. For the following spring election, there were 570, including ones in at least 66 of the state’s 72 counties. So, when Vos says Republicans have long maintained the boxes were illegal, "long" would have had to mean less than two years ago, which is when that letter was sent. When we asked Vos’ office for evidence of the long opposition, Joyce did not point us to earlier statements or prior legal action as backup. Rather, she pointed us to the very same letter that we just examined. How long is ‘long’? Let’s return to the issue: How long have legislative leaders maintained that the law did not allow such drop boxes? Vos’ office did not point to any pre-2020 letters, legislative bills, lawsuits or other actions meant to curb them. Instead, Joyce also circled back to 2020, writing that Vos "has opposed unsecured drop boxes since they became an issue in the 2020 election." She pointed to the Legislature’s ordering a nonpartisan audit of Wisconsin’s elections last February and the hiring of former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to probe the 2020 election as proof that lawmakers were concerned about drop boxes. (The nonpartisan auditors concluded that rules on how to use drop boxes needed to be adopted should they continue to be used; Gableman’s review is ongoing.) But all of that has happened since 2020, which underscores that the boxes had not been an issue for many years. Our ruling Vos claimed that the Legislature has "long maintained that the law never allowed these illegal drop boxes." His spokesperson drew a distinction between what was authorized by the court ruling and events like Democracy in the Park. But that seems to miss the point. At the time that Vos sent a letter suggesting the Madison clerk’s office instead use approved methods like drop boxes, the state Supreme Court ruling was many months in the future. So, we can only assume the letter was referring to the drop box practice in place at the time. More importantly, his own staff noted his concern only arose during the 2020 election, when the boxes – which had been around for many years — gained widespread attention. So, we think that claiming long-standing opposition overstates the case. We rate this claim Mostly False. window.gciAnalyticsUAID = 'PMJS-TEALIUM-COBRAND'; window.gciAnalyticsLoadEvents = false; window.gciAnalytics.view({ 'event-type': 'pageview', 'content-type': 'interactives', 'content-ssts-section': 'news', 'content-ssts-subsection': 'news:politics', 'content-ssts-topic': 'news:politics:politifactwisconsin', 'content-ssts-subtopic': ' news:politics:politifactwisconsin' });

NASA photos of the moon and Earth show that “space is fake. With the release of new colorful bowling-alley-carpetesque photos from the James Webb Space Telescope, it is official. Space is cool again. But for some people, such out-of-this-world images serve as evidence that, as one Instagram post claimed, "SPACE IS FAKE." That July 20, 2022, post relied on old NASA images to suggest that the varying sizes of the moon and Earth in relation to each other prove space is a myth. "Show me the angular size of something that gets smaller the CLOSER you get to it … " read the caption, implying that because Earth appears smaller than the moon in the second photo, it must be inauthentic. (Screenshot from Instagram) The post, which comes from an account that has shared a number of false claims suggesting the earth is flat, was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. Instagram is owned by Facebook. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Here’s why the post is wrong. The top photo was captured by a camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite that orbits about 1 million miles from Earth. NASA released the image in 2015 and included it as part of an animation that stitched together several still photos showing the far side of the moon as it crossed in front of Earth. The second photo dates back to July 20, 1969, when three American astronauts on the Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon. That image was indeed, as the post says, taken about 760,000 miles closer to Earth than was the 2015 image from the DSCOVR satellite. Although the two photos are not digitally altered, they do not prove that outer space is fake. The size discrepancy of the Earth in the two photos is a trick of perspective that can easily be replicated with any camera and any two different-sized objects. Using knickknacks from around PolitiFact’s newsroom, we illustrated why the Earth looks big in one photo and small in the other. Our two objects? Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 29, 2022 in Instagram post Photo shows Stanford scientists' "3D model of how Joseph, the husband of Mary the Mother of Jesus Christ, might have looked.” By Michael Majchrowicz • November 4, 2022 A vintage PolitiFact mug (Earth) and a lego Marge Simpson (the moon). (On the left is a side-by-side object comparison of Marge and the mug. The image on the right shows the distance between the objects for our photos.) After placing our objects about a foot apart, we took two pictures — one from far away, and one up close. (On the left is Marge and the mug captured from several feet away. On the right are the same objects, but the photo was taken from a distance closer to the mug and to Marge.) From far away, the mug looks small, and Marge looks smaller. As the camera gets closer in the second image, right next to Marge, she looks much larger than the mug, but still, the mug is larger than in the first photo because the camera is closer to it. But if you zoom in on the objects in the far-away photo, as was likely done with the 2015 NASA image of Earth, the mug appears quite large. It looks much larger than the second image, which was taken from a distance that is much closer to the mug (and also Marge). (On the left is the far-away image zoomed in on the objects. On the right is the same image we shared above.) So how does an object appear smaller the closer you get to it? This is how. It is a trick of the camera, not evidence that outer space is fake. There are many more reasons we know outer space is not fake. Official space exploration began in 1961 when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. Since then, more than 600 people have followed in his gravity-free footsteps. Several rovers have been sent to explore the surface of the moon and Mars bringing back rock specimens to distribute to researchers around the globe. Want to see for yourself? Check out a live feed from the International Space Station. Humans have been studying the night sky and the universe beyond since the dawn of mankind, and evidence of space began long before space travel. In the seventh century B.C., ancient Babylonians were tracking and predicting the movement of planets and constellations. Ancient Greeks used geometry to measure the earth’s circumference and the distance to the moon and to understand orbits. Now we have governmental agencies, astrophysicists, and astronomers dedicated to the study of space. The statement that this image shows "space is fake" is inaccurate and ridiculous. That’s our definition for Pants on Fire! RELATED: The James Webb Space Telescope and the images it has taken are real RELATED: Fact-checking the ‘hollow earth’ conspiracy theo

A “small area” in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico “has enough oil to fuel America for the next 200 years. Does America possess enough oil in 86,000 square miles to fuel the nation for two centuries? Sounds like a pipe(line) dream, but according to a viral image on Facebook, a "small area" in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico "has enough oil to fuel America for the next 200 years." The post is correct that the shaded area of the map, known as the Permian Basin, has large quantities of oil and natural gas. But current estimates don’t add up to a 200-year supply, and dynamic economic and geological factors make long-term predictions nearly impossible. (Screenshot of image shared on Facebook) The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) With oil prices peaking at $130 a barrel in March 2022, and Americans having recently paid over $5 per gallon at the pump, America’s energy resources have been a focus for politicians and citizens alike. The Permian Basin, which produces over 5 million barrels of oil a day, according to the U.S. Energy Administration, seems like a promising supply. The wealth of America’s most productive and largest oil basin lies in deep layers of shale deposits that have become accessible in the last two decades with the rise in horizontal fracking. Fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, involves drilling deep into the earth, first vertically and then horizontally, along layers of oil-rich rock. Pressurized water and chemicals are then pumped deep into the well, creating fractures through which oil and gas can escape. The Permian, which is broken into regions, is routinely assessed by the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS measures "technically recoverable" resources — "oil and/or gas (that) can be produced using currently available technology and industry practices," regardless of economic or accessibility factors. In 2018, the survey estimated there were 46.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable continuous oil in the Permian’s Delaware Basin; the estimate, at the time, doubled proven reserves. Estimates from the Midland Basin and Spraberry Formation add another 24.2 billion barrels to the region’s reserves, and a 2007 assessment identified 747 million barrels that could be recovered with conventional drilling. This abundance of natural resources rivals the famed oil fields of the Middle East, according to Bloomberg News. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 9, 2022 in a Facebook post “Donald Trump is back on Twitter,” thanks to Elon Musk. By Sara Swann • October 10, 2022 But experts warn that assessing the natural resources beneath our feet is not simple. "A resource assessment like those from USGS is not an estimate of how much oil will ultimately be produced. It is an estimate of what is technically recoverable, and it has a wide range of uncertainty around it," said Kenneth Medlock, senior director of the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University. Additionally, assessments are constantly being updated and revised. "The underground is as living as the human eye. It's a very organic space," said Deborah Gordon, who leads the Oil and Gas Solutions Initiative at the Rocky Mountain Institute. Estimates are not definitives or absolutes, but rather a snapshot of the current moment. "It's almost like having a doctor say, ‘I'm healthy today, but that doesn't mean I'm healthy tomorrow.’" And just because oil is technically recoverable does not mean it will be recovered. What matters more, experts say, is whether the oil is economically recoverable — meaning that the price of oil would render that extraction profitable. "Never is all of the oil extracted from any basin because economically, it is not feasible," Medlock said. "That is why wells are plugged – they get too costly to continue producing." Constantly shifting economic factors — including the cost of production, price of oil and technological developments — dictate how much oil is produced, Gordon said, not the sheer availability of resources: "The big question is, what's the future price of oil and gas?" And, she said, will it allow the Permian’s carbon bounty to remain economically recoverable? Even if we were to factor out the complexity of fluctuating estimates, changing economic conditions and advancing technology, the numbers still don’t add up to what is claimed in this Facebook post. According to the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. consumed 7.22 billion barrels of petroleum in 2021. Continuing at that rate of consumption, the estimated 71 billion barrels would last only 10 years. A 200-year supply would require closer to 1.45 trillion barrels — far beyond current estimates for the region. "It is highly unlikely that the Permian Basin will be able to provide all of America’s oil at any point in time," said Medlock. "But it is true that the Permian Basin will be an important source of oil for the U.S. and the world market balance for the foreseeable future ... 200 years? That is anybody’s guess." Our ruling An image on Facebook claimed that a "small area" in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico "has enough oil to fuel America for the next 200 years." The Permian Basin is indeed a large and valuable source of domestic oil and natural gas. But based on the latest geological assessments and U.S. energy consumption, estimated oil in the Permian would not last Americans 200 years. We rate this claim Fals

"Plankton in the Atlantic Ocean is 90% gone. Sea life has been struggling for years because of pollution, overfishing and climate change. A now deleted Instagram post claimed the world’s oceans are in even more trouble. The July 21 Instagram post featured an image of the ocean with superimposed text that read "Breaking: Plankton in the Atlantic Ocean is 90% gone." "In what could be the most disturbing news in ocean conservation, if not human, history — data reveals worse than expected state of plankton (the foundation of life on earth) with a 90% drop in the Atlantic, driving another nail in the coffin of our dying ocean," the text continued. The Instagram post cited a study released by the Global Oceanic Environmental Survey Foundation, or the Goes Foundation, a Scotland research group that measures plankton levels in the Atlantic Ocean. Howard Dryden, a marine biologist and the study’s lead author, was quoted in the Instagram post’s caption saying the Atlantic Ocean was "pretty much dead." Similar posts have popped up elsewhere on social media. Scientists have since questioned the study’s validity and the Goes Foundation’s data gathering methods. Dryden has said news outlets and social media have misinterpreted the study. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. Instagram is owned by Facebook. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) What are plankton? Plankton come in two groups: phytoplankton and zooplankton. Phytoplankton are plantlike organisms often found near the water's surface. They can absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. Zooplankton are animals that include creatures as small as krill and as large as a jellyfish. They stay in deeper waters during the daylight to avoid predators and rise up to the surface at night to feed on phytoplankton. The Goes Foundation study The Instagram post took its information and Dryden’s quote from a story about the foundation’s study in a story published July 17 by The Sunday Post, a Scottish newspaper. The Post's story originally had the headline of "Our empty oceans: Scots team’s research finds Atlantic plankton all but wiped out in catastrophic loss of life," and said the study found a majority of Atlantic Ocean plankton had disappeared over two years because of pollution from toxic chemicals and microplastics. However, the article did not say that the study collected samples from a limited part of the Atlantic Ocean at 15 degrees north latitude, and that the foundation’s findings have not been peer-reviewed. Dryden told PolitiFact there was a "breakdown in communication with The Sunday Post," and that the newspaper has since updated its story clarifying the scope of the foundation’s study. "What should have been said was that there has been a 90% decline in the equatorial Atlantic, not the whole Atlantic," Dryden said. "This is still a major finding, because it could mark the beginning of the spread further afield." Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 12, 2022 in a Facebook post “Trump woken up from his bed by police.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 14, 2022 The Goes Foundation described its plankton and pollution survey as an "ongoing Citizen Science project" involving 13 sailing vessels, one manned by researchers for the foundation and 12 others crewed by sailors given monitoring equipment. The crews used custom paper filters to collect water samples. Scientists would later analyze the filters to see whether plankton were in the water. The crews involved in the survey found only a minuscule amount of plankton. Dryden said the foundation's findings "should be verified by a second independent study," and that the organization is working on getting its findings peer-reviewed, although that could take two years. He said the organization felt it had to make the information public as soon as possible because "it is so important for the survival of the oceans and climate change." Scientists dispute study’s claims Oceanographers and marine biologists contacted by PolitiFact disagree with the study’s methods and findings, saying they have not observed a 90% drop in plankton around the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, or anywhere else. Mark Ohman, a biological oceanographer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, said the study "does not even begin to meet the standards of peer-reviewed science." He said the study’s sampling method was "not an appropriate way to take quantitative plankton samples" and led to unreliable results because: The sample tubes used by the boats were too small to collect zooplankton in the upper ocean. Most soft-bodied zooplankton would be unrecognizable on the filter paper used by the study. The study failed to sample most of the open ocean plankton, which are not large enough to be captured by the filter. The study didn’t specify when and where the samples were taken in the Atlantic, which would affect how much plankton was in the water, Ohman said. And the study failed to highlight plankton’s importance in ocean food webs and in regulating the Earth’s climate and oxygenating the atmosphere, he said. "This study makes no contribution to understanding of any of those key processes, is rife with distortion and misunderstanding, and completely lacks credibility," Ohman said. There have also been no widespread changes to the plankton levels in the Atlantic Ocean, said David Johns, head of the Continuous Plankton Record Survey, which was established in 1931 to measure and monitor the ecological health of marine plankton. "We have analyzed over a quarter-million samples from over 70 years of sampling, and have categorically not seen the declines reported by Dryden, and do not agree with his results," Johns said. Ohman said there has been no drop in overall zooplankton populations in the northeast Pacific Ocean, and a rise in phytoplankton. The Continuous Plankton Record Survey works with a large network of scientists around the world. None of the scientists has reported seeing the same declines mentioned in the Goes Foundation survey. There have been some plankton population declines that can be attributed to climate change, but not water pollution as mentioned in the survey, Johns said. "A reduction as mentioned in Dryden’s report would not only be catastrophic, but also immediately obvious," Johns said. "No plankton, no food for higher trophic levels such as fish, whales, filter-feeding shark and seabirds." Our ruling An Instagram post claimed 90% of plankton in the Atlantic Ocean had vanished. The post based its information on a study by the Global Oceanic Environmental Survey Foundation that claimed water samples it took in a part of the Atlantic Ocean showed the dramatic reduction. The organization said its findings could not be applied to the entire ocean, only the specific area from which the samples were taken. However, marine biologists and oceanographers have several issues with the organization’s sampling method and findings and say they have not seen a dramatic drop in the plankton population. In some cases, these experts say, plankton have been increasing. If such a dramatic drop in plankton occurred, it would have a disastrous impact on marine life that would have already been observable. We rate this Fals

Jane Goodall’s comments about population growth at World Economic Forum show COVID-19 pandemic was planned Did conservationist and primatologist Jane Goodall, a longtime advocate for chimpanzees and the planet, plant the seed that convinced world leaders to unleash the COVID-19 pandemic? That’s what one social media user alleged in a video posted on Instagram, two years after Goodall, a United Nations peace messenger, discussed unchecked population growth’s effects on the environment at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2020. Goodall said many of today’s environmental problems wouldn’t exist if the globe had the population it had 500 years ago. "They’re not even hiding it any more," reads a caption on a July 24 Instagram post. "Just wait til you find out how many world leaders are a part of the wef…" "Wef" is short for World Economic Forum. The poster expands on his claim in the video, in which he plays a clip of Goodall’s remarks, then cuts in to ask: "What was the population in the year 1500? About 500 million. What on earth could take place that would cause a planet with 9 billion people on it to be reduced by 95% to 500 million? Hmmm…I wonder if a virus could do that?" The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Goodall did make the human population growth comments seen in the video, but she has been making the same arguments for years. And there’s no evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic was intentionally started by world leaders, especially not because of her January 2020 comments, in an effort to lower the population. COVID-19 was already circulating in China a month earlier. What Goodall said Goodall was speaking about human population growth as it relates to sustainability and protecting the Brazilian rainforest, and thus, the environment, in a panel discussion at the forum. Her point, essentially, was that there are more people than the world has resources for, particularly in developing nations. She also said education and family planning are important to check population growth and protect the environment. Speaking at a panel discussion called "Securing a Sustainable Future for the Amazon," Goodall discussed her Trillion Trees Project, part of her effort to protect and restore forests to help the climate. She mentioned four things activists and governments need to focus on to help: poverty, eating less meat, political corruption and human population growth. You can see the full context of her statements in the video above, but she finished with: "Finally, we cannot hide away from human population growth, because, you know, it underlies so many of the other problems. All these things we talk about wouldn’t be a problem if there was the size of population that there was 500 years ago." Earlier in the discussion, Goodall spoke of visiting Tanzania and helping to start a scholarship program to keep girls in school after puberty. "It’s been shown all around the world as women’s education improves, family size drops, and it was the growing human population that was the worst problem destroying the forests in this area," said Goodall, who also described starting workshops on family planning. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 16, 2022 in an Instagram post “Covid vaccinations now prohibited in people under 50 in Denmark.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 18, 2022 At no point did Goodall advocate for lowering the population. Goodall has spoken about unchecked population growth and its effect on the environment as far back as 2003 and again in 2007. She made the same points in a video address to a Population Matters conference in 2019. "I would encourage every single conservation organization, every single government organization to consider the absurdity of unlimited economic development on a planet of finite natural resources," she said then. "Already in some areas, we are using up these precious natural resources faster than Mother Nature can restore them. We can’t go on like this. We can’t push human population growth under the carpet. We must find ways to address it." About COVID-19’s origins and population growth COVID-19’s origin is not yet certain, but there’s no evidence that the virus, which has killed nearly 6.4 million people worldwide, including more than 1 million in the United States, was intentionally released to lower the world’s population. PolitiFact has debunked the notion that the pandemic was somehow planned many times since it began. You can find all our coronavirus-related fact checks here. Although a possible lab leak wasn’t ruled out in a preliminary report in June by a team of scientists investigating the pandemic’s origins for the World Health Organization, two studies published this week in the journal Science say the virus likely jumped from animals to humans in a live market in Wuhan, China. The pandemic has affected population growth, according to the 2022 United Nations World Populations Prospects Report released in July. "The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all components of population change, including fertility, mortality and migration," said the report, which notes that the average life expectancy fell from 72.8 years in 2019 to 71 years in 2021, mostly because of COVID-19. Despite deaths from the virus, the world’s population is still growing — it’s expected to hit 8 billion people by November and peak at 10.4 billion in the 2080s — although the growth rate is the lowest it’s been since the 1950s, the report said. It’s clear the pandemic had nothing to do with Goodall’s comments at the 2020 World Economic Forum, as the virus was circulating in China in December 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Our ruling An Instagram post alleges that the COVID-19 pandemic was planned because Goodall spoke about unchecked human population growth’s effect on the environment at a World Economic Forum meeting in January 2020. But the virus had been circulating in China a month before Goodall made her remarks, and she has made similar comments over at least the past two decades. Despite the pandemic’s toll, the world’s population is growing and is projected to continue to do so. There’s no evidence the pandemic was planned. We rate this claim Pants on Fir

Germany weather maps show media exaggerating effects of climate change The overwhelming consensus among scientists is that climate change is real and that it’s most likely caused by humans. But many social media users are trying to convince others that the media is exaggerating climate change’s effects, with weather forecasts now showing normal summer temperatures in scary red colors to deceive viewers. A July 22 Facebook post showing two maps reads "Proof that climate change is real. See how the map is getting more red???" The maps appear as screenshots from two weather forecasts from Germany. The top image is from 2017 and shows temperatures on a green background. The bottom image is from 2022. It shows slightly lower temperatures on a map that is red, orange and yellow. The post, which we found being shared in other social media posts, was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The post is misleading, said Sabine Renken, a spokesperson for ​​Hessischer Rundfunk, a German public broadcasting corporation that leads the ARD Weather Competence Center. The center produces weather forecasts used in shows across ARD, an association of the nation’s regional public broadcasters. The images, although from the same TV program, were designed to show two different things. The 2017 image with its green coloring shows expected high temperatures for the next day. It’s a screen grab from a June 21, 2017, weather report on a daily news magazine broadcast called "Tagesthemen," which translates to "Daily Topics." The green map was not designed to reveal anything about the temperatures, Renken told us. In the full video of that weather report, forecaster Claudia Kleinert points to additional graphics that show showers and thunderstorms, wind direction and the forecast for the next few days, with temperatures cooling, over the same green background. The 2022 image with the red background similarly shows the next day's highs — this time on a color-coded heat map that was designed specifically to show a change in temperatures across the day. It appeared in a June 20, 2022, weather report from "Tagesthemen." Video shows that just before she showed the red map, she pointed to cooler early morning temperatures in green. The red, orange and yellow heat map was part of a change in graphic format implemented in 2020, according to a spokesperson for the broadcaster that produced the weather segment. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in a video Video shows “California sets their own forest fires and claims them as climate change effects.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 "Until 2020, there were no uniform weather forecasts in the ARD," Renken said. She said the weather reports were supplied by different editorial offices and companies and looked different in different broadcasts. Hessischer Rundfunk took over production of the weather forecasts in January 2020, Renken said, and the design and presentation were adapted for the broadcasts then. Renken disputed the notion that the two different maps show a conspiracy by weather forecasters to push a climate change agenda. "The two graphics differ in design and presentation. Until the end of 2019, the temperature maps supplied in the "Tagesthemen" only represented the temperature in numbers — the green background had no relation to the temperature," Renken said. In fact, in 2017, a weather report on a separate public broadcasting news program called "Tagesschau," a daily newscast that appears on the same channel and uses the same set as "Tagesthemen," showed the same style of map as those shared in this post, with a green background to show lower temperatures early in the morning, and then transitioned to red to show the weather warming during the day. The color of weather Many weather forecasts traditionally use colors to differentiate between cold, moderate and hot temperatures. A look at the national forecast on July 25 from The Weather Channel, which is based in the U.S., shows the color red being used to show warm temperatures, with pink used for extreme heat and yellow and orange for milder temperatures. Weather Central uses a similar color scheme, as does the National Weather Service, though red there is reserved for temperatures exceeding 100 degrees. WGN-TV, a Chicago station, uses a similar method to differentiate temperatures. Renken pointed us to a 2019 article from an ARD fact-checker that debunked a similar claim about maps from 2009 and 2019 that alleged that "Tagesschau" was manipulating them to exaggerate the effects of climate change. Our ruling A Facebook post claims that green and red colors showing temperatures in two different weather maps five years apart in Germany show the media is manipulating the maps to push a climate change agenda by adding red to make it seem hotter. But the maps in the post show two different things — one, from 2017, shows a general weather forecast on a green background; one, from 2022, shows only temperatures on a red background. The earlier green background had nothing to do with the temperatures, while the red background in 2022 did. We rate this claim False. PolitiFact developer Mark Wirblich contributed to this repor

Instead of fighting opioid addiction, a nonprofit founded by J.D. Vance paid his “top political adviser” and funded “political polling. In an Ohio race that could decide which party controls the U.S. Senate, Republican J.D. Vance’s Democratic opponent is accusing him of using money from a nonprofit for his own political benefit. U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan’s campaign made the attack in a 30-second ad: "When J.D. Vance moved back to Ohio, he told us his new nonprofit would help fix our state’s opioid crisis, but he failed to fund a single addiction program," the ad’s narrator says. "So, what did Vance do with the money? He funneled tens of thousands to his top political adviser and paid tens of thousands for political polling. An independent expert called the nonprofit a charade. Vance did nothing to help Ohio, but did everything to help his political career." The ad’s claim about how the funds were used is largely on target. In 2017, the year the nonprofit was most active, it spent nearly half of the money it took in to pay its executive director, who was — and remains — a Vance political adviser, and to pay for a survey. The survey was done while Vance was considering a run for the U.S. Senate, though it’s not clear the survey was undertaken for Vance’s political benefit. He and Ryan are now facing off in a race rated as "likely" Republican and "solid" Republican. Formed nonprofit while eyeing 2018 Senate run Vance, a venture capitalist, gained national attention after his 2016 memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis," became a bestseller. The book examines the struggles of America’s white working class through Vance’s childhood in southern Ohio. Vance’s nonprofit, Our Ohio Renewal, described itself as "dedicated to promoting the ideas and addressing the problems identified in" "Hillbilly Elegy," including fighting opioid abuse. Political consultant Jai Chabria was the nonprofit’s executive director while he advised Vance on whether to run for the Senate in the 2018 election, which Vance opted against. Chabria is the chief strategist on Vance’s 2022 campaign. Here are key events that happened around the time the nonprofit was launched and as Vance weighed a run for Senate in 2018: In December 2016, Vance said he would be moving back to Ohio from California to start a nonprofit that would work on a few issues, including opioid addiction. He was more specific in a March 2017 column in The New York Times, writing that the organization would "combat Ohio’s opioid epidemic." Our Ohio Renewal was formally created as a nonprofit in 2016, but according to its 2017 annual report, it didn’t launch publicly until spring 2017. Chabria, a former senior adviser to Republican John Kasich when Kasich was Ohio’s governor, was made the organization’s executive director. Also in 2016 and 2017, Vance was considering a run in the 2018 election for the Ohio U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Sherrod Brown; Chabria was one of Vance’s key political advisers. Chabria told The Columbus Dispatch, for example, that Vance had attended a dozen Lincoln Day dinners, a major Republican Party event, across Ohio. Featured Fact-check Adam Laxalt stated on November 20, 2022 in an ad “Biden and Democrats have dismantled border security.” By Maria Ramirez Uribe • November 3, 2022 In September 2017, in reporting that Vance had decided not to run, The Atlantic said he had commissioned a poll testing his viability in the Republican primaries for governor and Senate, and that Chabria was convinced Vance had a future in politics. Our Ohio Renewal filed a tax return only in 2017; it reported to the IRS that its receipts were less than $50,000 in 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020, meaning it did not need to file a tax return. The 2017 return said the nonprofit was "dedicated to promoting the ideas and addressing the problems identified in ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’" including fighting opiate abuse. We also found a July 2017 snapshot of OurOhioRenewal.com, a site that is no longer active, which said one of the organization’s three initiatives was to "lead on solutions to opioid abuse." In 2017, Our Ohio Renewal took in $221,135 in nonitemized contributions and grants and spent $50,078 on program services, including $45,000 for a survey on the "social, cultural and general welfare needs of Ohio citizens." The return said the organization also paid $63,425 to Chabria. Chabria would not say when the nonprofit’s survey was executed or whether it was the same polling undertaken in regard to Vance’s potential run for office. Ryan’s ad alludes to an article by Insider in August 2021, nearly two months after Vance announced his 2022 Senate run for the seat Republican Rob Portman is vacating. A Ryan campaign news release about the ad also cited the article, in which Insider reported on the federal tax filings. The article said a spokeswoman for Ohio's largest anti-opioid coalition hadn't heard of Vance's organization. It also quoted nonprofit expert Doug White, who reviewed the nonprofit’s tax filings, as saying, "This is a charade. It's a superficial way for him to say he's helping Ohio. None of that is actually happening, from what I can tell." Ryan’s campaign pointed us to the nonprofit’s tax return and to news articles about Chabria and Vance. The nonprofit said in its two-page 2017 annual report that its activities included researching kinship guardians and recommending how to support them in Ohio. In November 2017, Vance, identified as Our Ohio Renewal’s honorary chairman, wrote an opinion article for Cleveland.com that advocated for state legislation to support so-called kinship guardians — family members who help care for children when their parents, because of opioid addictions or other problems, can’t. The annual report said Our Ohio Renewal also authored a "working paper outlining state responses to the opioid crisis." Our ruling Ryan said that instead of fighting opioid addiction, a nonprofit founded by J.D. Vance paid his "top political adviser" and funded polling. Vance’s nonprofit, which was founded partly to fight opioid abuse, paid Chabria $63,425 in 2017 to be its executive director. Chabria was a key political adviser to Vance and remains on Vance’s 2022 Senate campaign. The nonprofit also spent $45,000 for a survey of the "social, cultural and general welfare needs of Ohio citizens." We could not find evidence documenting the survey’s exact questions. We rate Ryan’s claim about Vance Mostly True. RELATED: Fact-checking ads in the 2022 campaigns RELATED: Ohio fact-chec

‘The White House is now trying to protect Joe Biden by changing the definition of the word recession. Ahead of a key economic data announcement on July 28, critics of President Joe Biden have taken to social media to lay the groundwork for declaring the economy in recession, and laying the blame on the president. They have noted that if the federal government announces that gross domestic product shrank in the second quarter, it would represent the second consecutive quarter that GDP decreased. This is commonly cited as a sign of a recession being underway. One Instagram post from July 25 accused the White House of changing the rules of the game to deny the looming reality of an official recession. The post’s narrator said, "The White House is now trying to protect Joe Biden by changing the definition of the word recession." The narrator went on to read a portion of a White House webpage (also reproduced in the video’s backdrop) that said, "What is a recession? While some maintain that two consecutive quarters of falling real GDP constitute a recession, that is neither the official definition nor the way economists evaluate the state of the business cycle." Then, the narrator asks Apple’s Siri to define "recession." Siri responds with a definition, apparently plucked from an online dictionary: "A period of temporary economic decline during which trade and industrial activity are reduced, generally identified by a fall in GDP in two successive quarters." This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The two-quarter threshold mentioned in the video didn’t come from nowhere; it gained a foothold over many years because of its simplicity for the public, news outlets and politicians. It has a good historical track record of lining up with recessions, and it has the advantage of being calculated in real time, rather than months after the fact. Meanwhile, experts agree that the U.S. economy faces some important headwinds, recession or not. Despite low unemployment and healthy consumer spending, Americans feel uneasy about the economy when they see daily their costs rising and their 401(k) valuations sinking. And reasonable people can disagree about whether, or how much, Biden’s policies are to blame. However, the two-quarter threshold cited in the Instagram post has never been official. It’s more like a rough guide — one piece of a complicated puzzle. What’s the definition of a recession? The Instagram post is misleading in several ways, but especially in accusing the White House of "changing the definition of the word recession." For starters, the definition read by Siri — which holds no official stature other than providing an answer chosen by artificial intelligence — includes an important word that the narrator glosses over, namely "generally." In other words, the one-sentence definition Siri provided is not a closed answer. It’s a general guidance that includes exceptions. Siri could have easily picked another source of information: the website of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Business Cycle Dating Committee, which is the official arbiter of when U.S. recessions begin and end. It’s also the entity cited throughout the White House’s blog post. Featured Fact-check Hillary Clinton stated on July 22, 2007 in Washington, DC "Corporate profits are up, CEO pay is up, but average wages of Americans are flat." By Bill Adair • August 1, 2007 On the committee’s website — last updated a year ago, well before the current debate — the committee describes the factors it uses to determine the start of a recession, namely "a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and that lasts more than a few months." Every recession requires "depth, diffusion, and duration" of economic hurt. Beyond the change in GDP, the committee says it weighs personal income, payrolls, personal expenditures, manufacturing and trade sales and industrial production. The committee website also addresses the shortcomings of the two-quarters threshold head-on. The committee notes that it has sometimes classified periods as recessions even if they did not involve two consecutive quarters of negative growth, such as the 2001 dot-com bubble recession. Also, the 2020 pandemic recession lasted just two months — not enough to produce a full quarter’s worth of data, much less two. The White House blog post in question — which said the two-quarter metric is not the "official definition" and that the official ruling is made based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to change in GDP — is in accord with what the NBER has long said. And it’s not a sudden change. Meanwhile, in interviews with PolitiFact, a dozen economists cautioned against overreliance on the two-quarter rule, particularly in the current moment. For instance, all economic data gets revised in subsequent months, as more information is collected. This can turn an initial negative number into a positive one, or a positive number into a negative one. GDP fell in the first quarter by 1.6%, but economists say this may have been misleadingly negative, because of how inventories and trade data are factored in. A separate statistic — gross domestic income, or GDI — rose at a 1.8% annual pace over the same quarter. The NBER committee uses both GDP and GDI in its recession-dating debates. Also, data beyond GDP looks strong, including the unemployment rate and payroll employment. And the pandemic has been such an upheaval that there’s no reason to believe that a rigid standard like the two-quarter rule is still valid, said Rajeev Dhawan, director of the economic forecasting center at Georgia State University. Our ruling Instagram posts said, "The White House is now trying to protect Joe Biden by changing the definition of the word recession." It’s certainly to the White House’s political advantage to get ahead of potentially bad economic news, and there are plenty of indications that the U.S. economy faces significant challenges, including the possibility of an eventual recession. But the White House blog post cited is not only accurate about the official definition, but evidence shows it’s not a definition the White House suddenly cooked up as cover. We rate the statement Fals

"To date, nobody has been able to show that there is a law for the average American citizen working day in and day out to pay an income tax. A social media post that claims U.S. laws don’t support the collection of income tax makes its case using debunked information and features speakers who’ve been convicted of federal tax crimes. "To date, nobody has been able to show that there is a law for the average American citizen working day in and day out to pay an income tax," says a person identified as Tom Selgas, in a TikTok video shared July 15 as a reel on Facebook. Selgas was convicted by a federal court in 2020 of income tax evasion. The reel was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) In fact, U.S. laws about income tax requirements are crystal clear and have been repeatedly upheld by courts. "There have always been individuals who argue taxes are illegal," says an IRS document titled, "Why do I have to pay taxes?" The document continues, "They use false, misleading, or unorthodox tax advice to gain followers. The courts have repeatedly rejected their arguments as frivolous and routinely impose penalties for raising such frivolous arguments." The IRS explains the law like this: Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to "lay and collect taxes" to provide for the defense and welfare of the U.S.; Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 The Consitution’s 16th Amendment gave Congress the power to "lay and collect taxes on incomes"; Congress "used the power granted by the Constitution and Sixteenth Amendment, and made laws requiring all individuals to pay tax"; Congress authorized the IRS to administer tax laws, which are known as the Internal Revenue Code, found in Title 26 of the United States Code. Income tax laws are spelled out in Section 1 of the Internal Revenue Code, which "clearly imposes a tax on the taxable income of individuals, estates, and trusts," according to the IRS. A second person featured in the Facebook reel, Sherry Jackson, who is identified as a "former IRS agent," was sentenced in 2008 to four years in prison for failure to file income tax returns. Our ruling A Facebook reel says, "To date, nobody has been able to show that there is a law for the average American citizen working day in and day out to pay an income tax." U.S. laws about income tax requirements are in the Internal Revenue Code, found in Title 26 of the United States Code. The laws have been repeatedly upheld by courts. We rate this claim Pants on Fire!

Val Demings "called abolishing the police 'thoughtful.' An ad from Republican Sen. Marco Rubio's campaign takes his opponent in Florida's U.S. Senate race, Democratic Rep. Val Demings, out of context — undermining her background in law enforcement. The 30-second ad published on YouTube July 19 features several uniformed law enforcement personnel bashing Demings' voting record in Congress and calling her a "radical rubber stamp." "Demings votes with Pelosi 100% of the time," one officer said, invoking data from ProPublica that showed Demings and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed on 100% of votes in the 116th Congress, which ended Jan. 3, 2021. "She called abolishing the police 'thoughtful,'" another said, motioning air quotes. Rubio included a variation of the statement in an earlier ad from June 28 that appeared on Twitter — although rather than claiming she supported "abolishing" the police, it said Demings used the word "thoughtful" to describe "defunding the police." While the latest ad used more aggressive language, PolitiFact found that both ads cited the same interview. Neither ad represented Demings' words accurately. Demings did not call abolishing the police 'thoughtful' The campaign ad included a footnote citing a June 8, 2020, CBS interview. That day — about two weeks after footage showed George Floyd, a Black man, being killed by a white Minneapolis police officer — Tony Dokoupil of CBS This Morning quizzed Demings on her views on law enforcement reform. He zeroed in on a proposal in Minneapolis to "dismantle and rebuild" the city's police department. "Is that a strategy you could agree with?" Dokoupil asked Demings. Demings, Orlando's former police chief, said, "I do believe that everyone has a right to look at any proposal that is put forth because there desperately needs to be change. I also believe the council is being very thoughtful in terms of looking at all of the services that police provide." Featured Fact-check Kanye West stated on October 16, 2022 in an interview Suggests fentanyl, not Derek Chauvin, killed George Floyd By Gabrielle Settles • October 18, 2022 She also said she believed the city's council would devise a plan "to keep Minneapolis safe but also bring the community and the police together in a much-needed and long overdue way." Demings did not express support for "abolishing the police," as Rubio's ad suggested. Throughout her campaign, Demings rebutted suggestions that she supports defunding the police. In a Sept. 22, 2020, interview with NPR, for example, Demings said she would do everything she could to ensure law enforcement agencies were not defunded. "What I know from my on-the-ground experience is that all communities want to be safe," Demings said. "If resources are taken away from police departments, the most vulnerable communities would be disproportionately impacted yet again." Demings went further in a June 12 ad that highlighted her nearly three decades in law enforcement. "In the Senate, I'll protect Florida from bad ideas. Defunding the police: That's just crazy." Our ruling A Rubio campaign ad said Demings "called abolishing the police 'thoughtful.'" PolitiFact found that the ad misrepresented what Demings said when asked about a proposal in Minneapolis to dismantle the police. In the interview, Demings didn't take a position on the measure, adding that she believed community leaders and law enforcement would collaborate to improve policing. The ad gave Demings' words a very different spin. We rate it False

"The emissions generated by watching 30 minutes of Netflix is the same as driving almost 4 miles. Don’t touch that dial — or rather, don’t exit that tab of Netflix — if you’re worried that streaming services are as bad for the environment as a short drive. A popular screenshot of a tweet claims, "Your Netflix binge-watching is making climate change worse, say experts. The emissions generated by watching 30 minutes of Netflix is the same as driving almost 4 miles." The tweet from @BigThink crossed over to Facebook, where it was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) We wondered whether the comparison between driving a specific distance and watching Netflix for a specific amount of time checks out. Broadly speaking, watching streaming services does impact climate change through energy use, data transfer, and the production of devices such as TVs and computers. But the comparison presented doesn’t add up. We found the claim on Facebook, Twitter and meme pages. Often, a screenshot of the original tweet is shown with a response from the Twitter account @lexcanroar. The @bigthink tweet was originally meant to promote this article on bigthink.com, but the tweet has been deleted. The article now includes a correction dated Jan. 24, 2020. The correction says the article originally "relied on data produced by the The Shift Project," which is a French think tank advocating a shift to a post-carbon economy. The article, which is about the carbon impact of streaming services, no longer contains any comparison between driving and Netflix. According to its website, the specific claim about the half-hour of viewing came from an oral interview, quotes from which were published in AFP, a French cooperative news agency. The original statement on AFP was: Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in a video Video shows “California sets their own forest fires and claims them as climate change effects.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 "Watching a half-hour show would lead to emissions of 1.6 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent, said Maxime Efoui-Hess of French think tank the Shift Project. That's equivalent to driving 3.9 miles (6.28 kilometers)." The claim warped to include Netflix as it gained media traction. In response, the International Energy Agency published a fact-check in February 2020 by digital/energy analyst George Kamiya. Finding the exact comparison between driving and Netflix is difficult, as all kinds of data fluctuate. As Kamiya wrote, watching on different devices and driving different cars affects the comparison. Even the year makes a difference, because energy efficiency for data transfer is growing rapidly, as is the efficiency of cars and the availability of electric cars. Driving at different speeds or using energy from different countries can influence these numbers, too. That said, Kamiya came up with an estimate based on averages in 2019. He wrote that streaming a 30-minute show on Netflix in 2019 released around 18 grams of emissions. According to a report published by the Environmental Protection Agency in March 2018, the average American passenger car emits 404 grams of carbon dioxide per mile. That means 4 miles of driving emits about 1,616 grams of CO2, which is about 90 times Kamiya’s estimate of the emissions of a 30-minute Netflix show. If you do a little more math, you’ll find that the estimated emissions of a 4-mile drive is around the same as 45 hours of video streaming in the U.S. Kamiya described streaming as "a fairly low-emitting activity." The Shift Project responded to Kamiya’s fact-check with this document in June 2020, stating that Kamiya was correct about the Netflix claim being wrong, and that some of the data in one of its earlier reports had been flawed. (Kamiya also challenged the results of the Shift Project’s newer report in a November 2020 update to his IEA article.) Our ruling The claim in the Facebook post said, "The emissions generated by watching 30 minutes of Netflix is the same as driving almost 4 miles." The claim is attributed to The Shift Project, which describes it as an "error" that "appeared during an interview." Carbon emissions are complicated to gauge across different people who use different devices, drive different cars, get energy from different sources, and so on. However, an estimate from the International Energy Agency estimated that when this claim was made in 2019, 4 miles of driving had more similar carbon emissions to streaming 45 hours of Netflix. We rate this comparison Fals

"In the Wisconsin State Assembly this session, more than 75% of GOP bills received a public hearing. Meanwhile, the GOP allowed less than 2% of Democratic bills to have a hearing. As Wisconsin barrels toward the August primaries and the fall election, state Democrats are pointing out an imbalance in Madison. In the Legislature, Republicans have had control of both chambers since the 2010 election — and could expand their advantage this fall due to even more favorable maps. But that’s not the imbalance state Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison, had in mind when she tweeted this on May 18, 2022: "In the Wisconsin State Assembly this session, more than 75% of GOP bills received a public hearing. Meanwhile, the GOP allowed less than 2% of Democratic bills to have a hearing." Is she right? Behind the numbers Hong’s staff said the claim, and others she made in the series of tweets, came from two memos issued by the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau that looked at statistics on bills given hearings in the state Assembly. Jillian Slaight, managing legislative analyst for the Legislative Reference Bureau, told us similar memos have not been compiled for the state Senate. The memos, issued May 9, 2022, track data from 2009 to 2022. In the 2021-22 legislative session, Republicans gave 76.5% of their party’s bills public hearings. Meanwhile, just 1.9% of bills authored by Democrats received public hearings. So, Hong cited the numbers correctly in her tweet. Featured Fact-check Tim Michels stated on October 24, 2022 in News conference Tony Evers “wants to let out between 9,000 and 10,000 more” Wisconsin prisoners By Madeline Heim • November 4, 2022 !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); If the gap seems especially imbalanced, that’s because it’s a far cry from just over a decade ago. Democrats last controlled the Assembly in the 2009-10 session. In that session, 80.1% of Democratic-sponsored bills received public hearings, but 39% percent of Republican bills also had hearings. Control of the Assembly flipped in 2010, and with the election of Gov. Scott Walker, the GOP had full control of state government — so there was little functional need for bipartisanship to move matters forward. In the years that followed, the percentage of bills authored by Democrats that received public hearings cratered. In the 2011-12 and 2013-14 sessions, for instance, about 15% of Democratic-authored bills received a hearing. As noted, it was less than 2% in the current session. To give a sense of scale on the number of bills handled by the Legislature, the volume of bills introduced in a given session, by both chambers, from 2009 to 2020 ranged from 1,325 to 1,970, according to the most recent Wisconsin Blue Book, Our ruling Hong claimed that in the current legislative session "more than 75% of GOP bills received a public hearing. Meanwhile, the GOP allowed less than 2% of Democratic bills to have a hearing." Statistics compiled by the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau show she is correct, with a steep decline occurring since Republicans took over after the 2010 election. In the previous session, when Democrats had control, some 39% of Republican-sponsored bills got a hearing. We rate this claim True. !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"

“Supreme Court FINALLY signs VERDICT to IMPEACH Speaker Pelosi as Hunter’s Laptop IMPLICATES her. A sensationalized Facebook video claims the U.S. Supreme Court is impeaching House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., — even though the court lacks that authority. The 10-minute video was shared July 20 and is titled "Supreme Court FINALLY signs VERDICT to IMPEACH Speaker Pelosi as Hunter’s Laptop IMPLICATES her." The video features a collection of clips from politicians including Sen. Ted Cruz , R-Texas, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. First of all, the video’s title is inaccurate. The Supreme Court doesn’t have the power to impeach a federal official; only members of Congress have that ability, as laid out in the U.S. Constitution. The video was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The House of Representatives has the "sole power of impeachment," and the Senate has "sole power to try all impeachments," according to the Constitution. This means representatives can bring forward charges of impeachment against an official, and it’s up to a vote of senators whether to convict the official or acquit them of charges. The only role the Supreme Court has in an impeachment proceeding is when a chief justice presides over the impeachment of a president. At no point in the video did any of the politicians talk about Pelosi being impeached. Instead, they criticized Pelosi for decisions they disagreed with or talked about things unrelated to the Democratic leader. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post “Nancy Pelosi (purchased) 10,000 shares of Amgen, manufacturer of Nplate, a drug used to treat radiation sickness.” By Sara Swann • October 25, 2022 The video’s first clip is a speech Cruz gave July 29, 2021, in which he said Pelosi was "drunk on power" after a mask mandate was reinstated for House members following a rise in COVID-19 cases. The second clip shows Boebert during a House session on July 27, 2021, talking about how amendments she proposed for a spending package were rejected without debate, claiming Pelosi had silenced her constituents and the American people. The third clip features McCarthy criticizing Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., on March 18, 2022; the fourth clip is a speech made by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on March 28, 2022, calling for an investigation into President Joe Biden’s family. Tying to the video’s headline, McCarthy and Grassley refer to Hunter Biden’s laptop, which originated from a 2020 story published by the New York Post that claims a laptop belonging to the president’s son was purportedly left at a repair shop in Delaware. There’s no reported connection to Pelosi and the laptop. Our ruling A Facebook video claims the U.S. Supreme Court is impeaching House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The Supreme Court does not have the power to impeach federal officials; only the House has the ability. The video features several unrelated clips of politicians and provides no evidence to back up its claim. We rate this Pants on Fir

Antarctica has “an entrance to a different world” — a “mythic land” with green forests, giant animals, and “extraterrestrial technologies. Giant animals. Beautiful forests. Extraterrestrial technologies. That is all inside our planet, according to an Instagram post that claims the Earth is hollow and has a civilization living inside. Scientists once took claims like this seriously, according to "Hollow Earth," a book by David Standish. English astronomer Edmond Halley proposed to the Royal Society of London in the 1690s that the Earth consisted of nested, spherical shells that spun in different directions and surrounded a central core. Halley thought the space between shells may have had luminous atmospheres that might have supported life. American officer John Cleves Symmes expanded Halley’s theory in the 1810s by claiming that those spheres could be accessed through holes in both poles. Even though advancing science has debunked those ideas, they survive online. One recent Instagram post claimed that there is "an enormous void" with a "stunning magnetic anomaly" or a "massive gravity anomaly" beneath Antarctica’s ice. A "different world" or a "mythic land" exists in that space, where giant animals roam in green forests surrounded by "extraterrestrial technologies." Elsewhere, believers propose that aliens, Vikings, ancient civilizations, and Nazis escaping Allied forces all live in this place. They also claim that Adam and Eve from the Bible were banished from the inside of the Earth to the outside, and the Lost Tribes of Israel migrated from the outside to the inside. The Instagram post also claimed, echoing Symmes, that the Earth’s interior could be reached through polar holes and that elites are trying to hide those entrances by manipulating polar satellite images and banning travel to Antarctica. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Hollow evidence Since Halley and Symmes, scientists have amassed evidence proving the Earth isn’t hollow. Andrew Campbell, a professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, said the most straightforward explanation is that Earth’s density is greater than that of the rocky layer comprising its crust. Earth has a density of 5.5 grams per cubic centimeter on average (counting all the mass of the planet) while rocks in the crust have a density of 2.7 grams per cubic centimeter on average, Campbell said. If our planet were hollow, its density would be lower, not greater, than the density of its crust. Featured Fact-check Ron DeSantis stated on October 24, 2022 in a gubernatorial debate It's not true that "the United States was built on stolen land." By Yacob Reyes • November 3, 2022 Scientists cannot visit the Earth’s interior, but have other means for gauging its composition, Campbell said. For example, they can analyze the waves produced by earthquakes that run through the Earth’s interior, slowing and changing paths as they encounter the boundaries of its internal layers. Pole holes The Instagram post indicates that satellite images always come with the poles removed, blurred or covered. One picture included in the post, produced by NASA’s ICESat satellite, shows all of Antarctica except the South Pole. The post claims that this is part of a plot to keep underworld entrances hidden. But NASA scientist Thorsten Markus explained that satellites often skip parts of the Earth’s surface because of how they spin around the world. ICESat satellites, for example, do not cover the poles. "We pick the inclination based on our science requirements" and "the poles themselves are not that interesting so we skip them," said Markus. Finally, there are multiple examples of satellite images that show the North and South poles in great detail. And although American explorers traveling to Antarctica need to notify the State Department about their plans, they can still access the South Pole (and the North Pole) independently or on cruises, airplanes and balloons managed by travel companies. Keep out Pressure and heat inside the Earth make human visits impossible. "Life is possible to very limited depths in the crust, but not deeper than that," Campbell said. "In Earth’s mantle and core, the pressures and temperatures are so great that the chemistry of life is not possible — carbon-rich organic molecules will react to form diamond and other materials." Campbell believes this impossibility of access makes the depths of the Earth so fascinating to people. "The interior of the planet is inaccessible to human visitation, and probably always will be," he says, "so people conjure fantasies about what lies there." Our ruling An Instagram post claims that there is "an enormous void" below Antarctica, that a "different world" exists there, and that it can be accessed through a hole in Antarctica. The post also claims that elites are conspiring to keep that a secret. Scientists are sure that the Earth is not hollow, partly because it’s much denser than the rocks found on the surface. Elites are not hiding the poles from the public — they can be seen in satellite images and visited by tourists. And life is impossible deep inside the Earth. We rate the post Pants on Fir

"North Carolina GOP is re-introducing a bill that says life begins at conception and anyone who destroys that fertilized egg is guilty of first-degree murder. Liberal activists are sounding the alarm about a North Carolina bill that seeks to outlaw abortion and punish those involved in the procedure. "North Carolina GOP is reintroducing a bill that says life begins at conception and anyone who destroys that fertilized egg is guilty of first-degree murder," Qasim Rashid, a human rights attorney, said in a July 18 Twitter post. Rashid is a former congressional candidate and has more than 344,000 followers on Twitter. The tweet, which has been deleted, linked to the website of Demand Justice, a progressive group advocating for the expansion of the U.S. Supreme Court. Santiago Mayer, the founder and executive director of Voters of Tommorrow, tweeted something similar July 18, "Republicans in North Carolina just introduced a bill that’d make abortion punishable with death." Particularly for people concerned about abortion rights, the news is alarming. But the tweets are misleading and omit a significant fact: This proposed legislation is more than a year old and died in committee. We found no evidence that it has been reintroduced — the legislature is adjourned — nor did we find any evidence that it’s supported by Republican leaders in the legislature. Rashid didn’t respond to messages seeking comment about the claims in his Twitter post. About the bill The tweets appear to be a reference to a bill known as H158 that’s been filed in North Carolina’s state legislature. The bill seeks to define life as starting at fertilization — the earliest point in the pregnancy process — and could allow law enforcement to charge people with murder if they’re involved in an abortion. The bill also says people have the right to use deadly force to defend the life of another person, and that the state has an interest to "punish those who take the lives of persons, born or unborn, who have not committed any crime punishable by death." So, to some degree, the tweets convey some of the bill’s intent. However, Rashid inaccurately described who filed the bill. It wasn’t filed by the "North Carolina GOP," and it wasn’t even supported by a majority of Republicans. Although the North Carolina Republican Party’s platform says life should be protected "from conception until death" and that the party opposes the destruction of embryos, party spokesman Jeff Moore said the organization "doesn’t craft legislation" and had no involvement in the bill. "This appears to be purely political gaslighting," Moore said of the tweet’s claim. The bill was filed by two Republicans, one of whom is Rep. Larry Pittman — a retiring lawmaker who made national news in 2017 when he compared Abraham Lincoln to Adolf Hitler. In a letter filed with the bill, Pittman claims that "it is hoped that if abortion is made illegal, as it always should have been, more people will be more responsible in their sexual habits before producing a new human life unintentionally." Responding to analysis that his bill featured no proposal for implementing its goals, Pittman wrote that "abortion, being an act of murder, should be treated the same as any other instance of murder under existing law." Featured Fact-check Senate Leadership Fund stated on October 11, 2022 in a political ad Cheri Beasley “backs tax hikes — even on families making under $75,000.” By Paul Specht • October 31, 2022 With Roe v. Wade overturned and multiple states moving to limit abortion, the claim that the bill is being "reintroduced" is perhaps the most misleading part of the tweet. The bill was filed Feb. 24, 2021. It bounced around three House committees without a vote and the most recent committee referral was that August. The bill is effectively dead because it made no progress in either chamber and doesn’t meet qualifications for reconsideration that were outlined in the legislature’s adjournment resolution passed July 1, according to Stephen Wiley, caucus director for the North Carolina House Republicans. By the time Mayer and Rashid tweeted, state lawmakers had gone home because the main legislative session was over. "There are hundreds of bills introduced every biennium that never receive so much as a committee vote, and this is one of them," Wiley said. "Now, with legislators done with [the] short session, out-of-state online activists are bringing this bill up in an obvious attempt to build their fundraising lists." Republican legislative leaders — House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate Leader Phil Berger — both said last month that they won’t take up abortion bills until next year, when they hope to have a supermajority in both chambers. In a recent interview with WRAL News, Berger said he believes abortion laws should include an exception for rape and incest and that there "likely should be a period of the postconception the mother should have some autonomy in terms of what takes place." The political landscape The tweets also ignore an important fact about what would happen if the bill were somehow approved by the legislature. H158 calls for a constitutional amendment. Proposed constitutional amendments pass only if they receive 60% of the vote in both the House and Senate.Then all proposed amendments to the North Carolina Constitution must be approved by voters through a statewide referendum. The bill would direct the state Board of Elections to place it on the ballot in this year’s November elections. And it’s not a slam dunk at the polls. A recent WRAL poll conducted before Roe v. Wade was overturned found that most North Carolinians want state abortion laws to stay the same or become less restrictive. Given the procedural and political obstacles, it’s virtually impossible for this bill to pass this year and become law. After PolitiFact North Carolina contacted Voters of Tomorrow, Mayer deleted a tweet attached to the original claim that sought donations to his group. In an email statement provided to PolitiFact through Voters of Tomorrow, Mayer said: "While this bill was introduced earlier than I realized, our focus should be on how this bill would put people at risk of being murdered by the state for exercising control over their own bodies." Mayer also tweeted an acknowledgement that the bill "has been stuck in committee for a bit." Our ruling Rashid said "North Carolina GOP is reintroducing a bill that says life begins at conception and anyone who destroys that fertilized egg is guilty of first degree murder." The claim captures some of the bill’s intentions, but falsely says it was "reintroduced" by the "North Carolina GOP" and ignores key details about the bill’s status and potential for becoming law. We rate it Mostly Fals

Sen. Joe Manchin and AARP “support government price-setting schemes” to divert money from Medicare to “unrelated government programs or pad big insurers’ profits. A snappy political advertisement from the conservative advocacy group American Commitment bluntly charges Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., with supporting a legislative plan that would drain "billions in funds" from Medicare. Specifically, the ad claims that Manchin and AARP, the well-known advocacy group for people 50 and older, "support government price-setting schemes that’ll give liberal politicians billions in funds meant for Medicare to spend on unrelated government programs or pad big insurers’ profits." Here, "price-setting" is a reference to a policy proposal that its backers say would give Medicare the ability to rein in the prices it pays for some prescription drugs so they are more in line with prices in other industrialized countries. American Commitment didn’t respond directly to KHN’s request for comment, but its president, Phil Kerpen, took to Twitter to react to our email inquiry. Kerpen tweeted on July 14 that "CBO shows Manchin/Schumer drug price controls raid Medicare for $287 billion, most of which is expected to be sent to insurance companies as supersized Obamacare subsidies." This is a reference to the Congressional Budget Office’s July 6 cost estimate of the prescription drug policies in an economic package — a type of legislation known as a reconciliation bill — that Senate Democrats, led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., hope to bring to the floor in the coming weeks. The CBO found those policies would save $287.6 billion over 10 years as a result of Medicare’s reduced spending on drugs. More on this later. Both Manchin and AARP dismissed the ad’s message. "This ad funded by Big Pharma is blatantly lying about Sen. Manchin’s record," said Sam Runyon, Manchin’s communications director. "West Virginia seniors know Sen. Manchin has worked tirelessly to protect Medicare and reduce prescription drug costs." American Commitment received $505,000 from PhRMA, the drug industry’s trade group, in the 2020 election cycle, according to OpenSecrets. In the days after the ad began airing, Manchin announced he would support only a slimmed-down version of the reconciliation bill, although his support for Medicare drug-price negotiations has remained steady. Bill Sweeney, AARP’s senior vice president of government affairs, said the ad is representative of "the false attacks" that opponents of the proposal are using. "So I don’t think anything can be further (from) the truth," he said, referring to the ad’s assertion that the Medicare program will be cut to pay for something else. This ad is marked by charged language and opinions, and it raises the question of whether giving Medicare the power to regulate drug prices would be the price-setting scheme that American Commitment makes it out to be. What are Medicare drug-price negotiations? The ad claims that Manchin and AARP "support government price-setting schemes." And it’s true that Manchin and AARP continue to favor Medicare drug-price negotiations. So what does that mean? Medicare is currently prohibited from bargaining directly with pharmaceutical companies over how much it pays for certain prescription medications, so that power would be new. Supporters of the proposal say doing so would lead to significant savings for Medicare because it pays much higher prices than the rest of the world. Critics of the proposal, such as Kerpen, call the practice "price setting." The reconciliation bill’s Medicare drug provisions would allow the program to negotiate drug prices for a limited set of drugs — 10 initially and another 10 in later years — and would cap drug price inflation. The legislation would also set a $2,000 limit on annual out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries. Companies that opt out will face an excise tax on the previous year’s profits. Joseph Antos, a senior fellow and health care scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said an argument can be made that even though the drugmakers and the government would hold discussions about setting lower prices for certain drugs, the program would compel drugmakers to comply or face tax penalties. "The manufacturers will have no leverage at all — this is a law that gives (the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) the authority to set the price," Antos said. "There will be discussions, and, of course, it’s polite to call it negotiation," he added, but ultimately the government will make the decision. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 Medicare savings or cuts? Common Washington spin Historically, both Republicans and Democrats, as well as the advocacy groups aligned with them, have framed a reduction in Medicare spending as a cut to the program when trying to gain traction with voters. In this case, though, the drug pricing experts we consulted unanimously agreed that, from a budgetary standpoint, the almost $288 billion estimate from the CBO represents savings for Medicare, rather than funds that would be taken away from the program, as the ad alleges. "What’s happening here isn’t an elimination of a Medicare service or benefit — we’re talking about paying lower prices for the very same drugs we pay the highest prices in the world for now," said Rachel Sachs, a law professor and drug pricing expert at Washington University in St. Louis. "So, I’d say that’s fairly misleading," Sachs said. Indeed, if Medicare pays less for drugs, that could have a beneficial trickle-down effect, said Matthew Fiedler, a senior fellow with the University of Southern California-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy. That’s because, under this scenario, Medicare premiums and cost sharing would also be reduced, saving beneficiaries money. The actual savings would probably vary, though. Another common argument from the pharmaceutical industry is that if its revenue drops, fewer drugs could be developed in the future. The CBO estimated that the drug-price negotiation provision would hinder about 15 new drug approvals over 30 years. Under current law, about 1,300 drugs would typically be approved during that same period, according to the CBO. "There’s a lot of disagreement about how large those effects will be and whether we are talking about high- or low-value drugs," Fiedler wrote in an email referring to the reduced number of drug approvals. "There is a potential trade-off here between lower costs for beneficiaries and fewer new drugs down the road, albeit nothing resembling a clear-cut case that Medicare beneficiaries will be worse off overall." It’s also important to remember that these drug price negotiations would target only a small subset of drugs — 20, at most — although the legislation does target the most expensive single-source drugs, which could include some cancer drugs, blood thinners, and rheumatoid arthritis medication. Still, drug companies would be free to profit from the sale of their other drugs. So, overall, the experts said the ad’s contention that drug price negotiations would negatively affect seniors is inaccurate. Would insurers profit if Affordable Care Act subsidies were extended? The ad also alleges that the billions of Medicare dollars saved would be spent by liberal politicians on "unrelated government programs" or to "pad big insurers’ profits." Senate Democrats have said that the nearly $288 billion in estimated savings to Medicare would be used to offset the cost of other programs. There’s no question that the $288 billion in savings would give "Congress the ability to spend on something else in the same bill," Antos said. "But, again, this is not a revelation — this is how all legislation works. The ad makes it sound as if it’s out of the ordinary, but it’s actually completely usual." The Democrats’ earlier plan for the reconciliation bill included provisions related to climate change, energy, and tax policy. However, momentum is now behind the approach supported by Manchin, which includes only a two-year extension of the enhanced premium subsidies for consumers who buy insurance plans on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. The American Rescue Plan Act, which became law in March 2021, first increased those subsidies and made qualifying for assistance easier, but that help runs out at the end of this year. If the subsidies expire, millions of people will have to start paying much higher insurance premiums or could lose their coverage. This point brings us to the ad’s claim about padding insurers’ profits — which Kerpen linked to extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies. That’s not true, according to the experts. "Insurers might capture a little bit, since they would earn their ordinary profit margins on new enrollment," Fiedler said. But "those effects will be small relative to the amounts of money involved." The Affordable Care Act also includes a provision that stops insurers from profiting too much from marketplace plan premiums, said Linda Blumberg, a fellow in the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute. And increases in enrollment would also come with a boost in medical claims. Both Blumberg and Fiedler said framing the proposal to extend the subsidies as padding insurers’ profits is misleading. Our ruling American Commitment’s ad claims that Manchin and AARP support "price-setting schemes" that will divert funds meant for Medicare to "spend on unrelated government programs or pad big insurers’ profits." As noted by the experts we consulted, the ad is not accurate. The Medicare drug pricing plan results in savings, not the diversion of funds from the Medicare program. The ad also distorts the fact that those funds would be used to support other initiatives — in this case, the Affordable Care Act subsidies. It’s not an underhanded conspiracy but a regular part of the reconciliation process. Additionally, if the plan comes to fruition and ACA subsidies are extended, insurance companies are unlikely to reap big profits. We rate it Fals

Jim Jordan said, “It’s finally happening! Adam Schiff will be impeached. Former President Donald Trump said in 2019 that Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., should be impeached, and now, nearly three years later, a Facebook post claims that another congressman has vowed proceedings are underway. "’It's finally happening! Adam Schiff will be IMPEACHED’ - Brave Jim Jordan SHUTS DOWN Schiff," reads the description of a video posted on Facebook on July 21. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) First, it’s not even clear a member of Congress can be impeached. Second, there’s no evidence that Jordan, a Republican from Ohio, ever said this. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 Looking online we found no support for this claim. And news stories concerning impeachment, Jordan and Schiff regard old impeachment hearings against Trump, not Schiff. RELATED VIDEO One of the videos shows Jordan addressing lawmakers on Oct. 21, 2021, when the House voted to hold former Trump adviser Steve Bannon in contempt for failing to respond to a subpoena from the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Jordan doesn’t say Schiff will be impeached. The video itself offers nothing to corroborate the post’s description. Although there are a series of video clips, some involving Jordan and Schiff, none show Jordan talking about impeaching Schiff. We rate this post Pants on Fire.

Ranked choice voting in Alaska is a “total rigged deal. Alaska voters this year are using a new method to elect members of Congress that former President Donald Trump dismissed in remarks in Anchorage as "ranked choice crap voting." Trump has perpetuated dangerous falsehoods for years that elections are "rigged." Now he says the use of ranked choice voting in Alaska is another part of rigged elections. Ranked choice voting is a system by which voters rank candidates in order of preference, rather than choosing a single candidate. Election democracy experts say the system is not rigged; instead, it maximizes voter satisfaction by elevating the most widely supported candidates, rather than extreme candidates who are able to win races with large fields of candidates based on small bases of support. Trump held a rally July 9 to promote Kelly Tshibaka, the state’s former Department of Administration commissioner, who is running against fellow Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. He offered this description of ranked choice during his speech: "So-and-so had five votes for fifth place so we are going to give them the victory. It’s crazy, it’s crazy. And you know who got it put in? Lisa Murkowski got it put in…She knew she could not win a straight-up election. So she went for crazy ranked choice. You never know who won in ranked choice. You could be in third place. They announced that you won the election. It’s a total rigged deal just like a lot of other things in this country." Trump is free to dislike ranked choice voting, and he isn’t its only critic. Some say ranked choice voting hasn’t lived up to its ideals, but supporters say it encourages candidates to appeal to a broad spectrum of voters and increases voter participation. Either way, Trump is wrong to characterize ranked choice voting as a "rigged deal." Ranked choice voting is a legal and secure way to hold elections — and it lets voters’ preferences drive the results. Trump also said Murkowski "put" in ranked choice voting. That’s wrong, too — the voters put in ranked choice voting through a 2020 ballot referendum that passed with slightly more than 50% of the vote. We emailed a Trump spokesperson to ask for his evidence and received no reply. How ranked-choice voting will work for the U.S. Senate race in Alaska In Alaska’s U.S. Senate primary Aug. 16, voters will each choose one candidate among more than one dozen. The top four vote-getters, no matter their party, will advance to the November election. Tshibaka and Murkowski are both expected to advance. For the general election, voters will rank the candidates by their first, second, third and fourth choice. The lowest-finishing candidates are eliminated, with their voters’ second, third and fourth choices reallocated to those candidates’ totals. The candidate who wins 50% plus 1 vote, wins the election, going as many rounds as it takes. Trump wrongly suggested that someone in fifth place could win. First, voters only rank four candidates. And while it’s theoretically possible, it’s highly unusual for a bottom-of-the-pack candidate in the first round to end up winning. Of the 522 single-winner ranked choice voting races since 2004, the candidate with the most first-choice support has won 502 times, or 96% of the time, according to FairVote, an organization that supports ranked choice voting. Eighteen of those "come-from-behind" winners were in second place while two were in third place. Ranked choice voting has been upheld by the courts and has been used around the country and the world, said Rob Richie, president of FairVote. It was used by Republicans to nominate now Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin in 2021. It has also been used statewide in Maine, in New York City and in cities in Utah. How we know Alaska’s elections are not rigged Alaska’s approval of ranked choice voting in 2020 "was widely and correctly seen as a very fair election," said Glenn Daniel Wright, a political science professor at the University of Alaska Southeast. Rigging an election would require multiple officials to agree to break the law across multiple jurisdictions, an impractical plot. Alaska’s structure of election administration includes multiple security measures, and those remain in place under ranked choice voting. "Alaska has a long history of clean and professionally run elections and there’s no reason to suspect that’s changing now," Wright said. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 14, 2022 in an Instagram post Video footage showing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi hiding on Jan. 6, 2021, shows the U.S. Capitol attack “was a setup.” By Madison Czopek • October 17, 2022 Election administration in Alaska is handled through the state Division of Elections, which sits inside Republican Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer’s office. And Alaska has several rules requiring bipartisan oversight of elections on the state, regional and local level. Citizens are appointed to the bipartisan State Review Board that tests election tabulation equipment prior to the certification of results. Similar bipartisan election boards exist on regional and precinct levels, and a board is involved in the review of absentee ballots. Alaska uses other best practices for election security; it is a member of the Electronic Registration Information Center, a consortium that helps states share and update voter registration information, including death records. Alaska also has a paper trail for every ballot cast that allows voters to verify that their ballot is accurate. Alaska’s elections are transparent and allow for poll watchers to be on-site throughout the voting process and the public and media can observe review of absentee ballots. Jason Grenn, executive director of Alaskans for Better Elections, which spearheaded the ranked choice voting referendum, said that in 2020, after recounts, the review boards found no examples of widespread fraud or intentional misconduct by election officials. University of Alaska political scientist Jerry McBeath said there have been cases in which ballots were lost or not delivered on a timely basis to rural areas. But they weren’t intentionally diverted. "Almost all questions of elections in Alaska pertain to logistic questions," he said. "They don’t pertain to perceived corrupt election officials who are ditching ballots," he said. Murkowski didn’t personally "put" in ranked choice voting Despite Trump’s assertion that the incumbent senator was behind the new voting process, Murkowski’s campaign said she didn’t take a position on the 2020 ballot referendum. Some of the referendum’s organizers had ties to Murkowski, including Shea Siegert, who was formerly campaign manager for Alaskans for Better Elections and who now works for Murkowski’s campaign. Lawyer Scott Kendall, who served as campaign coordinator for Murkowski’s 2016 reelection campaign, litigated on the ballot measure campaign’s behalf. But none of this means that Murkowski "put" in ranked choice voting, as Trump said. Political observers said ranked choice voting should benefit Murkowski, and candidates like her, because as a moderate, she gets a lot of cross-partisan support from independents and Democrats. She would have a harder time winning the Republican nomination in a primary; in fact, in 2010, she lost the GOP nomination but returned to Congress after running as a write-in candidate. "Her positions accord with moderate voters in Alaska," said McBeath, including her support for abortion rights. Trump’s remarks are "mostly hooey, in my view," McBeath said. Our ruling Trump said ranked choice voting in Alaska is a "total rigged deal." Trump is free to dislike ranked choice voting, but his characterization is wrong. Ranked choice voting is a legal way to conduct elections, and the voters’ choices rule. Alaska has a history of secure and transparent elections run by bipartisan teams, and that structure doesn’t go away with ranked choice voting. In 2020, Trump laid the groundwork for blaming his loss on a "stolen" and "rigged" election — statements we found ridiculous. He is using a similar approach here in his efforts to denounce a senator who supported his impeachment after the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. We rate this statement Pants on Fire. RELATED: Democracy experts support Alaska’s move to ranked-choice voting. Here’s why RELATED: Trump’s own advisers add to evidence that election wasn’t stolen RELATED: All of our fact-checks about electio

Ron DeSantis "opposes any background checks on guns, even for violent criminals. U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist warned in a new TV ad that another term for Gov. Ron DeSantis could bring lax background checks for gun purchases in Florida. "Think about what’s at stake in Florida," Crist said in the July 14 spot, before referencing the governor's stance on abortion and his comments to high school students who wore masks to a March press conference. Then Crist moved on to guns, "Gov. Ron DeSantis ... opposes any background checks on guns, even for violent criminals." DeSantis' view on gun regulation is well-documented. In April, he signaled his intent to repeal Florida’s gun permitting process. He also snubbed Democratic lawmakers’ calls to hold a special legislative session to address gun violence. But we wondered whether DeSantis opposed any background checks for firearm sales, including for people with a history of violent crime. PolitiFact found no record of DeSantis speaking out against federal and state laws that require licensed gun dealers to check prospective buyers' backgrounds. DeSantis' office did not answer specific questions about his view on background checks for firearm sales. Crist’s ad lacks evidence Like federal law, Florida law requires licensed firearm dealers to conduct criminal history checks on prospective buyers. Someone convicted of a felony is prohibited from purchasing a firearm. Although DeSantis is a self-described "big Second Amendment guy," PolitiFact could find no record of him condemning such statutes in Google search results or the Nexis news database. When we asked Crist's campaign about his claim, a spokesperson said DeSantis hasn’t expressed support for background checks for anyone, "let alone violent criminals." But the campaign couldn’t point to a specific statement that suggested DeSantis opposes all background checks, either. Further, DeSantis hasn’t tried to remove such measures, though it’s not clear he could. Asked about Crist’s characterization of DeSantis' stance, DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw said, "Florida is a law and order state. Law-abiding citizens have the right to protect themselves." PolitiFact found at least two occasions when DeSantis rebuffed efforts to expand background checks. In 2020, Joe Gruters, a Republican state senator from Sarasota, introduced legislation that aimed to close the "gun show loophole." The bill would require a background check and a three-day waiting period on private-party sales at "public places," such as gun shows. While it garnered the support of then-state Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, the bill faced staunch opposition from the National Rifle Association, or NRA. DeSantis, whom the NRA endorsed in the 2018 governor’s race, questioned the need for the legislation during a press conference. "The fact of the matter is that anyone who is selling firearms is going to have to do background checks, unless it’s just a private sale," DeSantis said. "But you’re not going to have a table at a gun show on a private sale." DeSantis misrepresented the "gun show loophole," which zeroes in on unlicensed attendees who perform private firearm sales at gun shows. Gruters' bill didn’t pass. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in an Instagram post There were two shooters in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 After the May 24, 2022, school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Democratic lawmakers in Florida called for a special session to address gun violence and tackle background check expansion. None of Florida's Republican legislators signed onto the effort. In June, DeSantis criticized calls to hold a special session to address gun violence. "With all due respect to these leftists, they just want to come after your Second Amendment rights." But he said criminals should not bear firearms. "You focus on the criminal. You focus on the lunatic. You don't kneecap the rights of law-abiding citizens," DeSantis said in a June 8 press conference. DeSantis has signaled support for 'constitutional carry' In lieu of gun regulation, DeSantis said April 29 that he intends to sign a bill allowing "constitutional carry," or the permitless carry of firearms. "We used to be a leader on the Second Amendment," DeSantis said during a news conference in Williston, Florida. "There’s like 25 states that have already done it." Twenty-five states, including Alabama, Idaho, Georgia and Texas, no longer require residents to obtain a permit from a law enforcement agency to carry a concealed gun. Florida is one of the more restrictive states when dictating how people can carry firearms, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Under existing state law, people who wish to carry hidden guns in public must obtain a "concealed carry license" from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which requires passing a fingerprint-based background check. Floridians are generally barred from purchasing guns under state or federal law if they have been convicted of felonies or domestic violence misdemeanors. But concealed license applicants may also be denied under Florida law if they have been convicted of other violent misdemeanors. A permitless carry law wouldn’t change federal law, which requires licensed gun sellers to check buyers’ backgrounds. Private sellers without federal licenses wouldn’t have to meet the same requirement for background checks. Giffords Law Center, a gun control advocacy group with offices in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., told PolitiFact that a permitless carry law could allow people who dodged background checks through private sales to carry guns in public. "The law would likely make people convicted of violent misdemeanors newly eligible to legally carry firearms in public spaces and also make it easier for people with felony convictions to do so," said Ari Freilich, state policy director at Giffords Law Center. Our ruling Crist said DeSantis "opposes any background checks on guns, even for violent criminals." That’s misleading. PolitiFact found no record of DeSantis opposing existing federal and state laws that require licensed gun dealers to check prospective buyers' backgrounds. But we did find DeSantis speaking out against criminals possessing firearms. However, he hasn’t supported efforts to expand the criminal background check requirement to include gun sales by unlicensed sellers. DeSantis also promised to sign a "constitutional carry" bill. If passed, the law may allow people who evaded background checks through private sales to carry firearms publicly. Crist’s statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly Fals

“Jill Biden makes stunning admission after” President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 On July 21, the White House announced that President Joe Biden had tested positive for COVID-19. Biden was experiencing "very mild symptoms," according to a statement from Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and had begun taking Paxlovid to treat the sickness. But shortly after the news broke, a video posted on Facebook had this clickbait description: "Jill Biden makes stunning admission after Joe diagnosed." This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The supposed admission comes up about two and a half minutes into the video. Spoiler alert: She didn't say anything unusual, unexpected, shocking or, in the post’s parlance, stunning. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 "First lady Jill Biden was quick to make an update on his condition," someone in the video says. "Speaking to reporters, she said she had just spoken to her husband and he was feeling just fine. Then he went on and made a video where he thanked everybody for their concern and said he was feeling fine and of course there’s a lot of rumors and speculation when a 79-year-old man has COVID, you’ll want to know what’s going on, what’s his health condition, what’s it look like, so it was important for her to make that statement." RELATED VIDEO We watched a video of the first lady’s remarks that CNN published on its website. "My husband tested positive for COVID," she said. "I talked to him just a few minutes ago, he’s doing fine, he’s feeling good. I tested negative this morning. I am going to keep my schedule I am — according to CDC guidelines — I am keeping masked." The post’s claim of a "stunning admission" falls short. We rate it False.

George Floyd and COVID-19 “never existed. A recent Instagram post connects two major news events that shaped discourse and policy in this country and wrongly casts doubt on both. "They gave you a MASK to cover your face AND then gave you George Floyd’s signature phrase ‘I can’t breath’ …. Yet 2.5 years later, most still struggle with the realization that EVERYTHING on TV is fake. Floyd and ConVid never existed," the July 21 post says, using coded language for COVID-19. (Some social media users use coded language, such as deliberate misspellings and symbols, to try to evade detection by platforms seeking to contain the spread of COVID-19 misinformation.) The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) George Floyd was a real person with a family, including a daughter. He was killed by Derek Chauvin, then a Minneapolis police officer, after Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes on May 25, 2020. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death. COVID-19, meanwhile, has infected more than 565 million people around the world as of July 22, according to the World Health Organization, and caused the deaths of more than 6 million people. RELATED VIDEO Since its outbreak in Wuhan, China, in 2019, we’ve fact-checked dozens and dozens of misleading or flat-out wrong claims about the coronavirus, including that it or its variants are fake. We rate this post Pants on Fire.

The New York Times reported on a conservative activist’s “superdiarrhea. In April, The New York Times published a story about Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist in Washington state "who probably more than any other person made critical race theory a rallying cry on the right." The headline read, "He fuels the right’s cultural fires (and spreads them to Florida)," a reference to his support for a new Florida law prohibiting some teachers from discussing L.G.B.T.Q. issues with students. The subheadline explains: "Christopher Rufo helped make critical race theory a conservative rallying cry. Now he sees L.G.B.T.Q. issues as an even more potent line of attack." There’s also a portrait of Rufo standing on a beach with his thumbs hooked in his pockets. That same picture appeared in another supposed New York Times story that’s spreading on social media. In what looks like a screenshot from the newspaper’s website, the headline says: "He was one of the right’s most outspoken leaders. Then he got sick." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 23, 2022 in Instagram post California state Sen. Scott Wiener “doesn’t just want to sterilize California kids, but sterilization of kids everywhere!” By Michael Majchrowicz • October 31, 2022 The subheadline explains: "Christopher Rufo helped make critical race theory a conservative rallying cry. An unusual case of recurring ‘superdiarrhea’ put a sudden stop to his activism." An Instagram post sharing this image flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) This isn’t a real New York Times story. The image is doctored. Looking online, we couldn’t find any credible reporting on this supposed sickness, much less on the Times’ website. He most recently appeared in a July Times story about "the vanishing moderate Democrat," but not because of his health. Rather, the paper said that "he has attacked Democrats for, he charged, attempting to indoctrinate school children with ‘trans ideology.’" RELATED VIDEO He is active on Twitter, taking issue with a quote in a recent New York magazine story published on July 14 that declared "the right’s boy wonder finds a new cause." We rate claims that this is a real New York Times story False.

Democrats, including President Joe Biden, “stopped domestic drilling” for oil, driving gasoline prices higher Herschel Walker, the Republican nominee for a hotly contested Georgia Senate seat, took a page from the GOP midterm playbook by accusing President Joe Biden of sabotaging the U.S. ability to produce oil, driving gasoline prices to near record highs. In a July 13 tweet attacking both his opponent, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, and Biden, Walker wrote, "Gas is more expensive because you and Senator Warnock cancelled the Keystone XL Pipeline and stopped domestic drilling, sending American jobs and energy overseas." Gas is more expensive because you and Senator Warnock cancelled the Keystone XL Pipeline and stopped domestic drilling, sending American jobs and energy overseas. https://t.co/ED5U0b4jEJ— Herschel Walker (@HerschelWalker) July 13, 2022 Biden’s move to stop the Keystone XL pipeline would not have affected the current shortage of supplies, because it would have taken years to build, though it could have an impact on oil supplies further into the future. In this analysis, we’ll focus on Walker’s other contention — that Democrats, including Biden, "stopped domestic drilling" for oil. Critics may not approve of Biden’s efforts to turn the United States away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy. However, the assertion that Biden "stopped domestic drilling" is wrong on multiple levels, according to experts who study the oil industry. "The whole idea that Biden has reduced oil drilling or oil production is completely upside-down," said Clark Williams-Derry, an energy finance analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. Walker’s campaign did not respond to inquiries for his article. 1. Biden never acted to end domestic drilling; he sought the more limited goal of pausing new leases to drill specifically on federal lands. In an executive order issued about a week after taking office, Biden said his administration would "pause new oil and natural gas leases on public lands or in offshore waters," pending a review of current policies, "including potential climate and other impacts." This order was far more limited than stopping all domestic drilling. It would not have blocked any drilling on private land, and it would not have stopped any drilling that stemmed from federal leases already in force. "Stopping drilling on private lands was never on the table," Williams-Derry said. In fact, Biden couldn’t have stopped drilling on private lands even if he’d wanted to. "The federal government has no ability either to restrict or to mandate oil and gas drilling on private land," Williams-Derry said. "Those decisions are made by private oil and gas companies, as regulated by states, not by the federal government." 2. A court blocked Biden’s executive order. Within six months, a federal judge in Louisiana blocked Biden’s order on federal leases, saying that Congress alone has the authority to pause oil and gas leasing. This put those leases back on track. On April 15, 2022, the Interior Department announced its first onshore lease sale since Biden's moratorium, involving about 144,000 acres for drilling. Nearly all of that — 132,000 acres — is in Wyoming, with the remainder in Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, Nevada and Oklahoma. The Interior Department applied new standards in picking the sites for its auction. It aimed to cluster new wells close to existing drilling to reduce disruption on new lands and make full use of existing roads and other infrastructure. It estimated the greenhouse gas emissions that would come from the new wells. It also increased the royalty rate from 12.5% to 18.75%. 3. Even if the court had let Biden’s leasing pause stand, oil companies already have a backlog of more than 9,000 approved permits that they are not yet using. From a federal regulatory standpoint, once a permit is approved, industry can proceed. But companies don’t have to immediately begin drilling, since their leases last 10 years and can be extended beyond that. Once a company has a lease in hand, it can take a while to start drilling, since companies have to contract rigs to drill the wells and build a sufficient inventory of permits before rigs are contracted, said Jennifer Pett, a spokesperson for the Independent Petroleum Association of America, a trade group representing oil and natural gas producers. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 18, 2022 in an Instagram post Kamala Harris said, “We have to acknowledge gas is high which is the opposite of low.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 18, 2022 Because capital investments are involved, companies want to feel confident that their upront outlays will be paid back with sufficient revenues. In a sector with prices as volatile as energy, this sometimes leads them to adopt a wait-and-see attitude rather than jumping right in. Still, it’s not as if private companies had nothing to work with. They were sitting on a lot of unused leases. 4. Oil production on federal lands has risen on Biden’s watch. The bottom line is that oil drilling on federal lands has expanded on Biden’s watch. The number of federal drilling permits granted hit a new high, for instance. "Even as the administration attempted to pause issuing new leases, it continued to issue permits to drill on already-granted leases," said Mark Finley, a fellow at Rice University’s Center for Energy Studies. !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); Production on federal lands has risen as well. !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); 5. Under Biden, overall domestic oil production in 2021 came close to a record high. Beyond federal lands, domestic oil production has risen overall as well. Production under Biden has exceeded that in two of the four years under President Donald Trump. And the Energy Department’s official projection for 2023 shows domestic oil production hitting a new high. !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); 6. The number of oil rigs in use domestically has risen steadily on Biden’s watch, following a low point during the coronavirus pandemic. Another measure of drilling intensity — the number of oil rigs in use — has risen consistently on Biden’s watch. !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); That said, oil rig counts have not quite caught up to the number in use prior to the pandemic. They are also well below the highs of 2014. There’s a reason for that, said ​​Hugh Daigle, associate professor at the University of Texas’ Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering. "Wall Street and other investors are looking for producers to be more disciplined with their capital expenditures to give a better return on investment," Daigle said. "Unless investors see a long-term case for high commodity prices and robust demand, this situation will probably not change in the near term." As with much else involving the private-sector oil industry, Biden’s ability to change this situation is limited. "Streamlining the permitting process and helping alleviate supply chain bottlenecks could help, but this would only make a small difference" in alleviating high gasoline prices, Daigle said. "Releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve similarly help the global market, but only by a little due to the relatively small volumes compared to global demand." Our rating Walker tweeted that Biden "stopped domestic drilling" for oil, driving gasoline prices higher. This is wrong on many levels. Biden never sought to bar all domestic drilling. He did try to pause future leasing on federal lands, but this was blocked in court. And even if it had been allowed to proceed, Biden’s plan wouldn’t have affected drilling on private lands, nor would it have impacted the use of existing leases on federal lands, of which there are some 9,000 that companies are sitting on without initiating drilling. In fact, oil production has risen under Biden, both on federal lands and on U.S. lands overall. We rate the statement Fals

“Virginia now has the most liberal abortion laws in the world. Delegate Dave LaRock, R-Loudoun, recently put Virginia’s abortion laws into a global perspective. "Virginia now has the most liberal abortion laws in the world," he said at a July 9 rally on Capitol Square, urging Gov. Glenn Youngkin to back banning abortions in the state. We fact-checked LaRock’s claim and found that although Virginia does some of the most lenient abortion laws on the planet, they’re not the most lenient. We examined LaRock’s statement by comparing the gestational ages at which abortions are allowed in Virginia, other states and other nations. Those ages have been the focus of debate since the U.S. Supreme Court in June overruled its 49-year-old Roe v. Wade decision, saying abortion rights are protected by the Constitution. The court, in its new decision, said each state should make its own abortion laws. Virginia allows abortions through the first two trimesters of pregnancy — about a 26-week time frame. About 98% of the state’s abortions occur during the first 15 weeks, according to 2019 data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Extremely rare third-trimester abortions are legal if three physicians agree that continuing a pregnancy is likely to kill a woman or "substantially and irremediably impair (her) mental or physical health." You don’t have to go far on the globe to find a place with a more lenient law. New Jersey is one of six states that puts no limits on when abortions can be performed. The others are Vermont, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon and Alaska. That’s according to Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion research organzation, and the Anchorage Daily News. Outside of the U.S., we were unable to find a nation that allows basic abortion rights as long as Virginia’s two-trimester limit. In Canada, each province and territory sets its own abortion laws and gestational limits, ranging from 12 weeks in Yukon and Prince Edward Island to 24 weeks and six days in British Columbia. European nations generally allow abortions on request during the first trimester or slightly later. For example, Britain has a 12-week limit; Spain, 14 weeks; and France, 16 weeks. They all allow later abortions in special circimstances, such as when a woman’s health is in danger. Featured Fact-check Levar Stoney stated on October 26, 2022 in a news conference. “I don’t get involved in the hiring and firing of police chiefs.” By Warren Fiske • November 2, 2022 Russia allows abortion on demand until 12 weeks of pregnancy. India has a 20-week limit. China’s abortion laws vary in different regions. Diving deeper Although LaRock was focused on the gestational age of fetuses, there are other facets of abortion laws that can be compared. Virginia, for example, only allows public funding of abortions in cases when low-income people are victims of rape or incest,or if the woman’s health in endangered. The state requires parental consent before a minor can have an abortion, and it allows some abortions to be conducted by nonphysician health care specialists. Guttmacher made a wide comparison of U.S. abortion laws as of July 20 and categorized each state’s receptiveness to the procedure. Eleven states were rated as more protective of abortion rights than Virginia. We couldn’t find a similar rating of abortion laws around the world. But it should be noted that countries with nationalized health care systems — including Canada — publicly fund abortions while Virginia does so in a limited way. LaRock did not quibble when we spoke to him. "I should have said Virginia is among the most liberal states," he said. Our ruling LaRock said, "Virginia now has the most liberal abortion laws in the world." Virginia doesn’t even have the most lenient abortion laws in the U.S. Six states set no limits on when women may have elective abortions while Virginia puts its cap at the end of the second trimester — or about 26 weeks. The Guttmacher Institute considered additional aspects of abortion laws and found 11 states to be more protective of the procedure than Virginia. LaRock’s has a point, however. Virginia’s abortion laws are among the most lenient in the world. We couldn’t find another nation that allows abortions on demand beyond Virginia’s two-trimester limit. LaRock acknowledges his error. We rate his statement Mostly False.

Tennessee court rules “taxpayer-funded establishments can place signs that say ‘No Jews allowed.’ A panel of Tennessee judges dismissed a lawsuit from a Jewish couple who said they were denied foster care training by a Christian adoption agency. But the ruling led some social media users to misleadingly suggest that the decision gave establishments the right to legally erect "No Jews allowed" signs. "Chancery Court in Davidson County, Tennessee, has ruled that taxpayer funded establishments can place signs that say ‘No Jews allowed’ ... as long as there is at least one establishment where services for Jews are provided," read a July 17 Instagram photo shared by actress Rosanna Arquette and others. The photo is a screenshot of a July 6 tweet from the account @MaricopaAAPI. That tweet links to a Christian Post article from the same day about the court ruling. The Instagram post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The post exaggerates what a recent court ruling in Tennessee said. The claim "is misleading," said Breana Staten, a spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, whose executive director in 2020 urged Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee not to sign the state law that was challenged. "The court did not rule on the constitutionality of this law, but rather dismissed the couple’s lawsuit due to a lack of standing, as they were able to receive adoption services directly through the state," Staten said. About the lawsuit In January, a Jewish couple — Elizabeth and Gabriel Rutan-Ram — in Knox County, Tennessee, sued the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services and Jennifer Nichols, the department’s commissioner, after a Christian adoption agency denied them services. Six other parties, including an official from Tennessee’s chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, joined the plaintiffs. The lawsuit challenged a 2020 state law that protected private religious foster placement or adoption agencies against lawsuits and gave them access to taxpayer funds. The law was criticized by some people, who argued that it would allow agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ families and others hoping to adopt, according to news reports. The plaintiffs argued partly that the law violates the Tennessee Constitution, which states in Article 1, Section 3, "that no preference shall ever be given, by law, to any religious establishment or mode of worship." The Rutan-Rams had sought to foster and potentially adopt a boy with a disability in Florida. To do so, they had to complete a foster parent training program and get a home study certification, which the Tennessee department required, the lawsuit said. The couple scheduled the training with the Tennessee-based Holston United Methodist Home for Children, a Christian child-placement agency that receives state taxpayer funding. Before the training began, however, Holston told the couple that it provides adoption services only to families that share its religious beliefs, according to the lawsuit. Holston is not a defendant in the lawsuit. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on November 5, 2022 in Instagram post A German survey ranked Kyrie Irving as the “greatest threat to world peace” among world leaders. By Michael Majchrowicz • November 8, 2022 "I felt like I’d been punched in the gut," Elizabeth Rutan-Ram said, according to a January news release that Americans United for the Separation of Church and State sent out announcing the lawsuit. "It was the first time I felt discriminated against because I am Jewish. It was very shocking. And it was very hurtful that the agency seemed to think that a child would be better off in state custody than with a loving family like us." The couple said they had to abandon efforts to foster the Florida boy because no other agency in the area could provide them with the training needed to adopt an out-of-state child. Since June 2021, they have been foster parents to a girl from Tennessee and hope to foster another child, they said. Holston President and CEO Brad Williams told The Washington Post in January that forcing his agency "to violate our beliefs and place children in homes that do not share our faith is wrong and contrary to a free society." What the court said A three-judge panel in Davidson County’s Chancery Court dismissed the couple’s lawsuit in late June. The court did not decide on the constitutionality or merits of the Tennessee law. Instead, the court said the plaintiffs lacked standing. According to the panel’s ruling, in Tennessee a plaintiff must show a "distinct and palpable" injury, show a causal connection to the challenged conduct and show that the injury can be "redressed by a favorable decision of the court." The panel dismissed the lawsuit on several grounds, including that it was now "moot" because the couple had since been given training by the state and was approved as foster parents for a child in Tennessee’s custody. Among the reasons for the dismissal, the judges said there was no increased taxpayer burden for the couple because of Holston’s rejection and that Holston’s contract with the state applied only to children in state custody, not children from another state. The panel also said the plaintiffs didn’t show that the state wouldn’t contract with a Jewish agency that had the same policy as Holston, "therefore the Act does not single out people of the Jewish faith as a disfavored, innately inferior group." One judge dissented, writing that the couple "need not demonstrate that they would have been completely foreclosed from fostering/adoption ― only that they cannot compete for the right to adopt on the same footing as everyone else." Americans United for Separation of Church and State said it plans to appeal the ruling. Our ruling An Instagram post said a court ruling allows taxpayer-funded Tennessee establishments to put up "No Jews allowed" signs. The post exaggerates what judges said when they dismissed a lawsuit by a Jewish couple denied services by a Christian adoption agency because of their faith. The lawsuit challenged a 2020 state law that provides legal protections for private religious foster placement or adoption agencies that receive state funding and choose not to provide services to people who don’t share their faith. The court did not rule on the law’s constitutionality or merits, or say "no Jews allowed" signs are permitted if the establishment’s services were available elsewhere. The judges said the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue on several grounds, including that the lawsuit was moot because the couple had since received services from the state and fostered a child, and that the agency’s contract with the state did not apply to out-of-state children. We rate this claim Fals

A Texas farmer was “arrested for using illegal immigrants for free labor by pretending to be Joe Biden. Accompanying an image of a white-haired man in a suit smiling for the camera is what appears to be a sensational NBC News headline: "Texas farmer arrested for using illegal immigrants for free labor by pretending to be Joe Biden and threatening to deport them." The image looks like a screenshot from NBC’s website. An Instagram post sharing the image includes this commentary: "Free labor? It’s called slavery." This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on November 2, 2022 in a video Video suggests GOP voters denied access in general election. By Gabrielle Settles • November 8, 2022 (Screengrab from Instagram) We reached out to NBC about the post but didn’t immediately hear back. However, we found no evidence that this story is authentic. It doesn’t appear on NBC’s website, nor in Google search results where you can find echoes of old headlines even after they’ve been deleted on a news outlet’s site. Looking more broadly online, we didn’t find the story on any credible sites. The headline does appear on sites that look like — but are not — news websites, as well as on meme pages. We did a reverse image search for the supposed farmer in the post and found that he’s no farmer at all but a Brooklyn-born impersonator of President Joe Biden. He lives in London. We rate this post False.

Video shows Joe Biden sleeping at the Arab Conference in Saudi Arabia Since former President Donald Trump first called President Joe Biden "Sleepy Joe," misinformation to support the derisive nickname has spread on social media. But we’ve debunked multiple claims that Biden was caught falling asleep when he should really have been awake, such as during a TV interview or when meeting with Israel’s prime minister. A similar claim has emerged since Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia to speak to a summit of Arab leaders in Jeddah. "WATCH," one July 18 Instagram post says. "Joe Biden falls asleep at the Arab Conference in Saudi Arabia." "It’s an actual embarrassment that this man is SLEEPING while trying to beg for oil from Saudi Arabia," another post says. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 12, 2022 in a Facebook post “Trump woken up from his bed by police.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 14, 2022 Both videos show clips of Biden sitting at the summit with his head bowed and his eyes lowered. These posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) We found a video of the summit that Reuters streamed live on YouTube showing the moment the posts use to claim BIden was sleeping. But in context, you can see that he’s awake. RELATED VIDEO Biden appears starting around the 20:12 mark, and although he does at points have his head bowed and his eyes lowered, he keeps shifting positions, moving his hands and raising his head and eyes. He appears to simply be listening, not sleeping. One of the posts also draws from footage of Biden delivering a speech at the summit. Unless he was doing something akin to sleepwalking with his eyes open, he was awake. We rate these posts False.

"38,000 Texans had their license to carry denied, revoked, or suspended over the last five years because law enforcement deemed them too dangerous to carry a loaded gun in public. But thanks to Greg Abbott's new law, they don't need a license to carry anymore. Many Texas officials were present as Gov. Greg Abbott held a May 25 news conference one day after a shooter killed two teachers and 19 children at an elementary school in Uvalde. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke rose from the audience and approached the stage. "This is on you," O'Rourke told Abbott, his Republican opponent in the November election. "Unless you choose to do something different, this will continue to happen. Somebody needs to stand up for the children of this state or they will continue to be killed, just like they were killed in Uvalde yesterday." O'Rourke, who endorsed the mandatory buyback of military-style rifles when he ran for president in 2020, has continued to criticize pro-gun policies adopted by Texas' Republican leadership. On May 29, he tweeted, "38,000 Texans had their license to carry denied, revoked, or suspended over the last five years because law enforcement deemed them too dangerous to carry a loaded gun in public. But thanks to Greg Abbott's new law, they don't need a license to carry anymore." Is he right that people "too dangerous to carry a loaded gun in public" no longer need a license to carry? O'Rourke's sources When we reached out for sources, O'Rourke's campaign pointed us to Texas Department of Public Safety data reports onlicense to carry applications denied, licenses revoked and licenses suspended. PolitiFact Texas contacted the Texas Department of Public Safety multiple times about permitless carry requirements but did not receive an answer. The campaign said the tweet was about House Bill 1927, one of many laws loosening gun restrictions that went into effect in 2021. That law allows people 21 years or older to carry a firearm without a license, except for those prohibited by federal and state law from possessing a firearm. The Department of Public Safety has data on licenses by calendar and fiscal year. When you add up the numbers for the past five fiscal years, there were nearly 35,000 licenses denied, suspended or revoked. In a follow-up phone call with O'Rourke's campaign, a spokesperson said the 38,000 statistic mistakenly encompasses six years, not five. For fiscal years 2016 to 2021, about 38,000 applications and licenses were denied, suspended or revoked. !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); So, O'Rourke's range of years was off by a year. Can people 'deemed too dangerous by law enforcement to carry a loaded gun' now carry? PolitiFact Texas reached out to law experts to look at the second aspect of his claim: people who have had their handgun license denied, revoked or suspended now do not need a license to carry a handgun. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in an Instagram post There were two shooters in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 Effective September 2021, the law no longer requires people to obtain a license to carry a concealed or holstered handgun in most public spaces in Texas. Obtaining a DPS-issued license requires applicants to pass a background check, complete a gun safety course, and meet specific eligibility requirements. HB 1927 stipulates, "persons who are currently prohibited from possessing firearms under state and federal law will not gain the right to possess or carry a firearm under this legislation." While it is accurate that people no longer need a license to carry, this part of the law is meant to prevent someone from carrying a gun who is barred by state or federal law from possessing a gun. Andi Turner, legislative director at the Texas State Rifle Association, pointed to this line in the law that prevents people "deemed too dangerous" from carrying a loaded handgun in public spaces. The law also defines who is prohibited from possessing a firearm, including people convicted of a felony or of certain assault offenses. HB 1927 and firearm possession law cover some of the same base eligibility requirements. Ari Freilich, state policy director at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said in an email that he believed O'Rourke's statement is accurate because HB 1927 made some people who previously could not qualify for a handgun carry permit newly eligible to carry guns in public because of gaps in the law. Before the permitless carry law took effect, some people could legally purchase a gun while being ineligible for a handgun carry permit, Freilich said. The Giffords Law Center gave three examples of this, documented in a 2019 report. For example, Freilich said, this would apply to an abusive partner threatening to shoot his spouse or child, as long as he didn't actually use or exhibit a firearm when threatening them. It is generally a Class C misdemeanor to intentionally or knowingly threaten another person, including a spouse or household member, with imminent bodily injury. But state prohibitions in firearm possession applies to felony and Class A misdemeanor assault convictions. Practically speaking, there is no longer a check on who is carrying because law enforcement can't legally require a license, Southern Methodist University law professor Eric Ruben said. "The licensing process was a filter for weeding out who shouldn't otherwise carry handguns," Ruben said. "And if someone was caught carrying a handgun, law enforcement would be able to ask, 'Do you have a license?' If a person didn't have a license, they'd be breaking the law." Without being able to ask for a license, Ruben said, it will be hard to differentiate between someone who's lawfully carrying a gun or not. Our ruling O'Rourke tweeted, "38,000 Texans had their license to carry denied, revoked, or suspended over the last five years because law enforcement deemed them too dangerous to carry a loaded gun in public. But thanks to Greg Abbott's new law, they don't need a license to carry anymore." O'Rourke tweeted the wrong number. It should have either been nearly 35,000 licenses denied, revoked, and suspended within the past five years or over 38,000 within the past six years. Though law enforcement is longer checking for licenses, the second part of O'Rourke's statement is an oversimplification. HB 1927 states, "persons who are currently prohibited from possessing firearms under state and federal law will not gain the right to possess or carry a firearm under this legislation." So, people "too dangerous to carry a loaded gun" would be kept from having one because of state and federal possession laws. But there are some gaps in the law, and keeping a statewide requirement for licenses would have made people meet more eligibility requirements. We rate this Mostly Fals

An image shows Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in front of a cross with a figurine of former President Donald Trump on it A viral TikTok video purports to show an image of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., reading the Bible in front of a cross with a giant figurine of former President Donald Trump on it. "What is hanging in MTG’s office?" reads the text over the TikTok video, which was posted July 19 and accumulated more than 800,000 views and 90,000 likes in approximately two days. The speaker in the video references a July 19 tweet sharing the same image. Behind Greene, the image shows a large white figurine depicting a mostly naked Trump, with a red hat and his arms and legs pinned to the cross in what resembles a crucifix. "I found this tweet of Marjorie Taylor Greene reading, and it asks, ‘What’s Marge reading?" the speaker in the TikTok video says, before circling and zooming in on the model of Trump in the tweeted image. "Why is this not satire? Why is this hanging in her room?" The image in the tweet and TikTok video is digitally altered, however; reverse image searches show that in the original photo, Greene was captured reading in front of a bare cross. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 29, 2022 in Instagram post Photo shows Stanford scientists' "3D model of how Joseph, the husband of Mary the Mother of Jesus Christ, might have looked.” By Michael Majchrowicz • November 4, 2022 "Totally fake," Greene spokesperson Nick Dyer said of the image in an email to PolitiFact. "And a disgusting attack on her Christian faith." Greene tweeted the original photo — which showed a cross without the representation of Trump attached to it — from her personal Twitter account in November 2021. That account was later permanently suspended for violating the platform’s policies against spreading COVID-19 misinformation. "My daily bread," Greene wrote in the original tweet. "It took years for me to read this book, but that time was the greatest investment I’ve ever made. It led me to Him." Greene’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. We rate this TikTok post Fals

Donald Trump gave a speech in Prescott Valley, Arizona, on July 18, 2022 What looks like a speech given by Donald Trump in Arizona on July 18 has been viewed more than 16,000 times on Facebook. Presumably, some of the former president’s supporters were among the people who clicked play when they saw the post’s description: "LIVE: President Donald J. Trump in Prescott Valley, AZ - July 18, 2022." But they would be disappointed. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Instead of a recent Trump speech, the video starts with remarks delivered by then-Vice President Mike Pence at a campaign event in Flagstaff, Arizona, on Oct. 30, 2020. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 23, 2022 in a post Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs “sent 6,000 wrong ballots to Republicans.” By Gabrielle Settles • October 28, 2022 Then it cuts to a Jan. 29, 2022, speech Trump gave in Conroe, Texas. Trump was scheduled to speak at a "Save America" rally on July 16 in Prescott Valley but it was postponed following the death of his first wife, Ivana Trump. The rally was rescheduled for July 22. We rate the claim this video shows a July 18, 2022, speech False.

“Biden threatens to assassinate Ukraine president. President Joe Biden has voiced his support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the United States has sent billions in weapons and military training to the country as Ukraine fights Russia’s invasion. Those facts make a recent description of a video on Facebook all the more befuddling: "Biden won’t finish first term! Leaked audio - Biden threatens to assassinate Ukraine president!" the July 18 post says. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 16, 2022 in an Instagram post Kid Rock posted “Zelensky just bought his parents an $8,000,000 villa, complete with a salt water pool & 3 brand new vehicles.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 17, 2022 The video itself offers no evidence of this supposedly leaked audio — nor does it provide a credible source to corroborate the post. We also couldn’t find anything online to support the claim. In fact, Zelenkyy’s wife, Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska, visited the White House and met with the Bidens on July 19. The White House said Zelenska and U.S. first lady Jill Biden would "discuss the United States’ continued support for the government of Ukraine and its people as they defend their democracy." We rate claims that Biden threatened to kill Zelenskyy Pants on Fire.

“John Fetterman wants to release one-third of dangerous criminals back into our communities. Editor's note, Aug. 19, 2022: Fox News posted a story on Aug. 17 that linked to a video that PolitiFact had not seen when we originally published this fact-check. In the video, posted on YouTube Oct. 7, 2020, Fetterman was asked about reducing the number of prison inmates in Pennsylvania age 50 and over. Fetterman said, "We’re actively trying to audit our population to identify those inmates that are most deserving and does it make sense." He said he agreed with a statement he attributed to the state’s then-corrections secretary that "we could reduce our prison population by a third and not make anyone less safe in Pennsylvania." This story has been updated to include information about Fetterman’s comments in the video. Fetterman did not say he supported releasing one-third of "dangerous criminals." Our rating remains unchanged. Attacking his election opponent as "crazier than you think," Mehmet Oz tweeted an ad to his 3.8 million Twitter followers that made this claim: "John Fetterman wants to release one-third of dangerous criminals back into our communities." John Fetterman on crime: crazier than you think. pic.twitter.com/0xmMnUU9fI— Dr. Mehmet Oz (@DrOz) July 18, 2022 Oz, a physician and former TV talk show host, is the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. Fetterman, a Democrat, is the state’s lieutenant governor. The race, rated by campaign watchers as "tilts Republican" and a toss-up, could help decide which party controls the Senate, which is now split 50-50. Fetterman has touted work to increase the number of pardons issued to prison inmates in Pennsylvania and has called for reducing the prison population in other ways, but we did not find an instance of Fetterman calling for the release of one-third of dangerous criminals. In 2020, Fetterman twice highlighted what he said was a comment by Pennsylvania’s then-corrections secretary that the state could reduce its prison population by one-third without risking public safety. Two Fetterman tweets Oz tweeted his ad on July 18, the same day his team announced the ad was part of a "Liberal-O-Meter" campaign to highlight Fetterman’s "radical policies and crazy statements." It’s not the first time he has made the claim. Oz said in a June 13 speech that Fetterman said, "We should release one-third of all inmates, including violent offenders." And in a video ad published on YouTube July 14, Oz said Fetterman "supports releasing one-third of the prison population." To back up the claim, Oz’s campaign referred PolitiFact to a June 22 article in the conservative-leaning Daily Caller and to two Fetterman tweets cited in the article. The article said Fetterman twice in 2020 "appeared to endorse" releasing one-third of the state’s prison population. In May 2020, Fetterman tweeted: "PA’s Correction Secretary has said: ‘We could reduce our prison population by 1/3 and not make anyone less safe.’" And in July 2020, he tweeted: "Our Corrections Secretary has said we could" release "1/3 of our inmates and not make anyone less safe. What if we directed those savings into our state schools?" The corrections secretary was John Wetzel, who was appointed to the post in 2011 by Republican Gov. Tom Corbett. In announcing in September 2021 that Wetzel would leave the post, Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, praised Wetzel for reducing the state’s prison population. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 PolitiFact searched Google, the Nexis news archive, and Wetzel’s Twitter account, and did not find an instance in which Wetzel made such a statement, so we asked Fetterman’s campaign about the Wetzel remarks. Spokesperson Joe Calvello responded that the campaign could not find the exact quote, but that Wetzel has made similar comments, such as in 2021, when Wetzel advocated for medical parole for elderly inmates, saying most who would be eligible "are incapacitated and not a security threat." Calvello said that Fetterman was not expressing an opinion on releasing one-third of its inmates but was citing Wetzel’s comments to highlight the cost of Pennsylvania’s prison system. We tried to reach Wetzel via LinkedIn and his consultant agency on Facebook, but got no reply. On Aug. 17, Fox News posted a story that linked to a video from an Oct. 7, 2020, panel discussion on reducing incarceration. In that video, Celeste Trusty of the Families Against Mandatory Minimums advocacy group asked Fetterman about reducing the number of prison inmates in Pennsylvania age 50 and over. Fetterman said, "We’re actively trying to audit our population to identify those inmates that are most deserving and does it make sense." He said he agreed with a statement he attributed to Wetzel that "we could reduce our prison population by a third and not make anyone less safe in Pennsylvania." Fetterman backs "second chances" Fetterman has called for "second chances" for offenders, such as eliminating mandatory life-without-parole sentences for certain murder convictions and for other criminal justice reforms. Fetterman’s campaign website includes one video promoting his record as lieutenant governor in increasing pardons for prison inmates in Pennsylvania; in the other video, Fetterman calls for overhauling the criminal justice system, saying, "There are individuals that, quite frankly, don’t need to be in prison, it doesn’t make anyone more safe." Pennsylvania ranked 25th among states in the number of people incarcerated in state prisons per 100,000 residents, based on 2019 U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics data, according to The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit that works to minimize imprisonment. Our ruling Oz said Fetterman wants to release one-third of dangerous criminals back into our communities." Fetterman has not called for releasing one-third of "dangerous criminals." In 2020, he said he agreed with what he said was a comment by Pennsylvania’s corrections secretary that the state’s prison population could be reduced by one-third — without a risk to public safety. Oz’s statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False. RELATED: Fact-checking ads in the 2022 election campaigns RELATED: Pennsylvania fact-chec

“My company was building the Keystone Pipeline when (President Joe) Biden canceled it. On his first day in office, President Joe Biden put the final nail in the coffin of the Keystone XL pipeline when he revoked its construction permit via an executive order. Several months later in June 2021, TC Energy Corporation announced the termination of the project, bringing an end to more than a decade of debate and legislative back-and-forth on it. The Keystone XL pipeline would have been an extension to the Keystone pipeline, an already existing structure that brings tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to storage and distribution facilities in Cushing, Oklahoma and eventually to refineries in Texas. The extension would have boosted this by carrying an additional 830,000 barrels per day from Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska. Environmental activists, Indigenous communities and climate change experts hailed Biden’s decision to cancel the pipeline, which could have damaged sacred sites, caused pollution and water contamination, imperiled wildlife and dramatically contributed to carbon emissions. But the decision was criticized heavily by many Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, former Vice President Mike Pence and — most recently — Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels, who had a personal stake in it all. On June 23, 2022, Michels tweeted: "My company was building the Keystone Pipeline when Biden canceled it. Both he and Tony Evers are making us all pay the price. I'll stand by Wisconsinites and ensure you keep more of your hard-earned dollars as your next governor." He made another claim in a video posted with the tweet: "Biden killed hundreds of jobs, sent gas prices way up, making everything more expensive." We rated that Mostly False. Michels is the co-owner of Michels Corporation, an energy and infrastructure contractor headquartered in Brownsville, Wisconsin, with locations across the United States and Canada Was Michels Corp. building the Keystone XL pipeline when Biden canceled it? How big of a role did the company have? In an email to PolitiFact Wisconsin, TC Energy confirmed that Michels Corp. had been awarded "a significant construction scope" on the Keystone XL pipeline for both the pipeline and facilities. Michels Corp. provided more details in an email: "Michels Pipeline, a Division of Michels Corporation, received a contract related to the Keystone XL pipeline to construct pumping stations. Michels Canada Co. received another contract in Canada to help build the mainline pipeline of the Keystone XL pipeline." According to a post on Michels Corp.'s website from September 2020, Michels Corp. was awarded a contract from TC Energy to construct eight pump stations for the pipeline in Montana, South Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 18, 2022 in an Instagram post Kamala Harris said, “We have to acknowledge gas is high which is the opposite of low.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 18, 2022 Pump stations are facilities along a pipeline that maintain the flow and pressure of oil as it's being transported. They were one type of ancillary facility required for the Keystone XL project, which would have traversed through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. Oklahoma and Texas, however, are part of the existing Keystone pipeline structure, so some of the pump stations Michels Corp. was constructing may not have been for the Keystone XL pipeline. The post said that construction on the eight pump stations started in late June 2020 and was scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2021. It also said the company would employ more than 350 workers at peak construction. According to a June 2020 post on Michels Canada’s website, Michels Canada was awarded a contract from TC Energy to construct approximately 260 kilometers (about 162 miles) of the pipeline in Alberta. A TC Energy fact sheet about the Canadian portion of the pipeline said it would be approximately 530 kilometers (about 329 miles) from Hardisty, Alberta, to Monchy, Saskatchewan. So Michels Canada would have constructed about half of the Canadian portion of the pipeline. The full pipeline was to run around 1,200 miles. So, Michels’ company was clearly a significant part of building the pipeline, but as stated readers might think it was the primary – or even sole – contractor. The post said that Michels Canada was projected to hire 1,000 workers each year of the two-year construction period, which was scheduled to begin the summer of 2020 near Oyen, Alberta, and finish in the spring of 2022 near Hardisty, Alberta. At the time Biden canceled the permit for the pipeline, on Jan. 20, 2021, Michels Corp.’s construction of eight pump stations in the U.S. was likely nearing completion. Michels Canada’s construction of its segment of the pipeline’s Canadian portion was likely about one-third complete. According to Reuters, only about 8% of the planned Keystone XL pipeline had been built by the time President Biden canceled the permit. Our ruling In a tweet, Michels claimed his "company was building the Keystone Pipeline when Biden canceled it." The way it was stated could leave readers thinking his company was fully responsible for the pipeline. And some of the pump stations his campaign and company cited apparently are tied to the existing portion of the pipeline. So, there is a lack of precision there. But Michels is right that his company had a significant role in the pipeline project. We rate the claim Mostly True. window.gciAnalyticsUAID = 'PMJS-TEALIUM-COBRAND'; window.gciAnalyticsLoadEvents = false; window.gciAnalytics.view({ 'event-type': 'pageview', 'content-type': 'interactives', 'content-ssts-section': 'news', 'content-ssts-subsection': 'news:politics', 'content-ssts-topic': 'news:politics:politifactwisconsin', 'content-ssts-subtopic': ' news:politics:politifactwisconsin' });

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy makes $11 million a month and has a net worth of $596 million Rumors about Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s wealth continue to proliferate on social media, and the latest post being shared on Facebook takes aim at his supposed net worth. The July 19 post features an image allegedly showing Zelenskyy's net worth as being $596 million, with a salary of $780,000 and a monthly income of $11 million. "This, ladies and gentlemen, is what corruption looks like," the Facebook post says. No evidence is provided by the post on how it determined the Ukrainian leader's salary, monthly income and net worth. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The image source for the Facebook post is a screenshot from a website called CAknowledge that says it’s based in India. The site is filled with blog posts detailing the net worth of celebrities and describes itself as "one of the leading websites in the field of (chartered accountant), (company secretary) and (cost and management accountant) as well in other fields like banking and other similar professional exams." Like the Facebook post, the site doesn’t provide evidence on how it determined Zelenskyy’s net worth, salary and monthly income. It also claims, without proof, that Zelenskyy owns a dozen real estate properties and several luxury cars and yachts, and that he owns stock in companies like Apple, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon. PolitiFact previously rated False a similar claim that said Zelenskyy owned a $35 million home in Florida and had an overseas bank account worth $1.2 billion. The claim came from a source that appeared to be backed by the Russian government. Zelenskyy does have some assets — or at least he did before becoming Ukraine’s president in 2019. A trove of financial documents called the Pandora Papers was made public in 2021 and detailed how the wealthy hide their assets through offshore tax havens and, in a few cases, money laundering. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 22, 2022 in an Instagram post A CNN headline shows Uganda’s president saying he doesn’t support Ukraine because it would be “disgusting.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 24, 2022 Zelenskyy and several associates oversaw multiple offshore companies, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, or OCCRP. People close to Zelenskyy used the companies to buy several expensive real estate properties in London. The papers didn't reveal how much money the companies held and made no references to Zelenskyy receiving $11 million a month, owning luxury yachts or holding stock in multiple tech companies. The documents did reveal that his assets included some cars and property, but it did not go into specifics. An April 2022 report by Forbes found that Zelenksyy's actual net worth is somewhere between $20 million to $30 million. The news outlet estimated that Zelenskyy has an $11 million stake in Kvartal 95, a television production company he helped start before his presidency. Forbes determined his real estate holdings were worth $4 million and made up of an apartment in Kyiv that he lives in, two apartments that he owns, two complexes that he co-owns and a piece of commercial property. Zelenskyy also has a shared bank account with his wife, first lady Olena Zelenska, that has about $2 million, plus two cars and a few pieces of jewelry that are worth less than $1 million combined, according to Forbes’ report. Our ruling A Facebook post shared a screenshot from a website claiming to show Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s net worth as being $596 million while receiving a monthly income of $11 million and a salary of $780,000. The website featured in the Facebook post offered no corroborating evidence for the claim. Leaked financial documents showed Zelenskyy did have some assets, but nowhere near what's being claimed on the website and Facebook post. A report by Forbes found his net worth to be much smaller, around $20 million to $30 million. We rate this Fals

The cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline by Joe Biden “killed hundreds of jobs, sent gas prices way up. After about a decade of gas prices declining overall, they have skyrocketed this year. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, gas prices rose sharply, peaking at $4.33 a gallon on March 11 before a slight decline. They then started rising again from late April through mid-June, when they reached a record $5.01 per gallon on June 13 before declining again. Tim Michels, a Republican running for governor in Wisconsin, had a novel approach to the blame game. He attributes the prices at the pump to President Joe Biden’s decision some 18 months ago to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline. In a video Michels tweeted on June 23, 2022, he said the decision "killed hundreds of jobs, sent gas prices way up, making everything more expensive." In the tweet itself, Michels wrote that his company "was building the Keystone Pipeline when Biden canceled it" — a claim we rated Mostly True. But what about the claim related to job losses and gas prices? Hundreds of jobs were lost, but most of them were temporary Michels Corp., the construction company Michels co-owns, was awarded a contract to construct eight pump stations in the United States for the Keystone XL pipeline. It was also awarded a contract to construct about half of the Canadian portion of the pipeline in Alberta. So, he’s got a direct stake in the issue. Let’s start with the portion of the claim about hundreds of jobs lost. According to a post on Michels Corp.’s website, the company expected to employ more than 350 people for the pump stations contract. Another post on Michels Canada’s website said the company expected to hire 1,000 workers each year over the two-year construction period for the segment of the pipeline’s Canadian portion. Thus, Michels is on the money about the number of jobs involved. But it’s important to note that the jobs were temporary. A 2014 State Department report, which provides the most comprehensive estimate of jobs tied to the Keystone XL pipeline project, found that it would support 3,900 direct construction jobs in the United States over one year of construction, or 1,950 per year if construction took two years. Once construction was complete and the pipeline was operational, about 50 total employees were required in the United States: 35 permanent employees and 15 temporary contractors. Yes, a job is a job, but the fact that most of the jobs created by the Keystone XL pipeline project were short-term is an important detail that Michels left out. Gas prices "completely unrelated" to Biden’s decision Now let’s look at the other, more problematic, half of the claim — that the end of the pipeline sent gas prices way up. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 18, 2022 in an Instagram post Kamala Harris said, “We have to acknowledge gas is high which is the opposite of low.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 18, 2022 In response to a request for backup, Chris Walker, an advisor to the Michels campaign, said "obviously with gas prices nearly doubling in price since President Biden took office, the results of abandoning American energy production speak for themselves." But gas prices did not begin to spike until late February 2022, over a year after the pipeline was canceled. What’s more, the pipeline was not expected to be operational until sometime in 2023 — many months from now. So, there are two major problems right there. Here’s one more: As envisioned, the pipeline would have had a negligible impact on the world’s oil supply once operational. And it’s important to remember that oil prices, and the gas prices that follow, are part of a global market. "There’s just no connection there," said Gregory Nemet, a professor of public affairs and energy policy researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, adding that rising gas prices are "completely unrelated" to Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline. The main problem with Michels’ claim, Nemet said, is that the oil and gas markets are global, since oil is shipped around the world by pipelines, ships, and trains. As such, "there’s really one global price for oil," he said. There’s some variation in different places, but that variation doesn’t last long. This is an important point, he said, because around 95 million barrels of oil get used per day. When the Keystone XL pipeline would have been completed, it would have moved a small fraction of that, having an impact of less than 1%. So what’s causing the rising gas prices? According to Nemet, two main things: post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery and disruptions from Russia’s war in Ukraine. Transportation demand fell during the pandemic, and the supply of oil followed. The demand has now bounced back as people return to their prepandemic driving and flying habits, but the supply has been slower to rebound. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, many countries stopped buying oil from Russia, one of the world’s largest oil producers. "Again, because it’s a global market, disruptions far away affect the U.S. directly," Nemet said. Our ruling Michels claimed that by canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, "Biden killed hundreds of jobs (and) sent gas prices way up." He has a point on the loss of jobs, but left out the fact that all but 35 would be temporary. He’s way off the mark, though, on the impact of the decision on today’s gas prices. Even if it had not been canceled, the pipeline would not be finished today. And if it were, its presence would have a negligible impact on the global oil market. Our definition for Mostly False is "the statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression." That’s what we rate this claim. window.gciAnalyticsUAID = 'PMJS-TEALIUM-COBRAND'; window.gciAnalyticsLoadEvents = false; window.gciAnalytics.view({ 'event-type': 'pageview', 'content-type': 'interactives', 'content-ssts-section': 'news', 'content-ssts-subsection': 'news:politics', 'content-ssts-topic': 'news:politics:politifactwisconsin', 'content-ssts-subtopic': ' news:politics:politifactwisconsin' });

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was “faking being arrested” during an abortion-rights protest outside the Supreme Court Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and 16 other House Democrats were arrested during a July 19 rally outside the Supreme Court to protest the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The U.S. Capitol Police said the arrests were in connection with crowding, obstructing or incommoding after the protesters continued blocking a street despite three warnings from the police. Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., posted photos of their arrest paperwork to their Instagram stories indicating that they had been ordered to pay $50 fines. Screenshots from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Instagram story, captured on July 20, 2022. Across social media, however, conservative critics of Ocasio-Cortez and promoters of the QAnon conspiracy theory falsely claimed that the entire ordeal was staged. "The D.C. Police fake arrest AOC. I wonder what else they fake?" said a post from a QAnon channel on Telegram, in a reference to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. "AOC and ‘the squad’ are the best at one thing, self-promotion. That’s all this was about," said former Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., on Fox Business Network. "I guess the attention wasn’t on them enough lately, so they decided to go out and get basically fake arrests." "Why would AOC be faking being arrested," said Graham Allen, a conservative podcaster and Turning Point USA contributor, in Twitter and Instagram posts shared after the arrests. "Only to forget and then wave to people?! What kind of crazy is this?!" Social media posts on Instagram and Telegram falsely claimed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez faked her arrest. The Instagram post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Ocasio-Cortez was arrested, and there’s no evidence it was faked. She retweeted a video of the arrest taking place, and she said on her Instagram story that she would pay the fine in cash. Shortly after PolitiFact reached out to her office, the congresswoman addressed the allegation that she had staged the arrest in a post shared to her Instagram story. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 14, 2022 in an Instagram post Video footage showing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi hiding on Jan. 6, 2021, shows the U.S. Capitol attack “was a setup.” By Madison Czopek • October 17, 2022 "As for ‘faking arrest,’ that is also false," Ocasio-Cortez wrote. "I was arrested, charged, and fined. Police confirmed this fact and I posted the paperwork." Screenshots from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Instagram story, captured on July 20, 2022. The offices of Omar and Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., who was also arrested, confirmed to PolitiFact that the arrests were real and Ocasio-Cortez was among those arrested. Cori Bush, D-Mo., shared a photo with Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter and wrote that "they arrested us." A freelance journalist also tweeted photos of Ocasio-Cortez being processed for her arrest, and several news organizations published reports detailing what happened. Ocasio-Cortez put her hands behind her back The claim that Ocasio-Cortez faked her arrest was an extension of a similar narrative that was spread by other conservative commentators and media outlets, such as the Post Millennial. As the police escorted Ocasio-Cortez away, she walked at first with her hands crossed behind her back. Then she pumped a fist in the air. That change in posture led to accusations that she was pretending to be handcuffed for show at the beginning. (The U.S. Capitol Police told PolitiFact none of the demonstrators were handcuffed because the arrests were noncustodial.) But Ocasio-Cortez also addressed those allegations on her social media. "Republicans’ favorite hobby is to make conspiracy theories out of everything to distract you and keep you from talking about what’s actually important, which is the fact that they are trying to take away your right to bodily autonomy," Ocasio-Cortez said in an Instagram story. "If I was faking that, why would I intentionally fist pump somebody? It’s so silly." "Putting your hands behind your back is best practice when under arrest, whether you are handcuffed or not, because it can help prevent more serious charges like resisting arrest," she wrote in another Instagram story. She said the same on Twitter, adding, "No faking here." Ocasio-Cortez’s office declined to comment further. Our ruling An Instagram post said Ocasio-Cortez was "faking being arrested" during an abortion-rights protest outside the Supreme Court. Ocasio-Cortez’s arrest was not faked; it took place on video and was corroborated by news reports, social media postings and the offices of other lawmakers who were arrested alongside her. Ocasio-Cortez called the claim "false." We rate this post Fals

Images of Plymouth Rock prove sea levels are not rising Legend has it that, upon arriving in North America, the Pilgrims stepped off the Mayflower onto the large boulder that now sits in a place of prominence on the Plymouth, Massachusetts, waterfront. Plymouth Rock is a well-known tourist attraction, but its connection to early U.S. history is unproven. And despite what some social media users have claimed, the landmark cannot be used to disprove that sea levels are rising. An Instagram user shared a July 17 meme about the rock that read, "Plymouth Rock, 2022 still at sea level." On July 12, a Facebook user shared another meme featuring two pictures of Plymouth Rock side by side, one labeled "1620 at sea level" and the other "2022 still at sea level." (Screengrab from Facebook.) The posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) These Plymouth Rock memes do not prove that sea levels remain unchanged; the posts are false and misleading. There’s no evidence the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock There is no evidence the rock proudly displayed under the portico in Plymouth today is the exact place where Pilgrims first disembarked the Mayflower in Plymouth, much less that it was found at sea level. (The Pilgrims first landed in Provincetown, Massachusetts, on Nov. 11, 1620. The Mayflower anchored in Plymouth Harbor a few weeks later.) There are two primary accounts of the Pilgrims’ Plymouth landing, but "both simply say that the Pilgrims landed. Neither mentions any rocks in their account of the landing," said Plymouth’s Pilgrim Hall Museum’s website. "The first references to Plymouth Rock are found over 100 years after the actual landing." The National Museum of American History site refers to the story of the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock as "oral tradition," and said no contemporary accounts of the landing mention a rock. Plymouth’s tourism website said in 1741 an elder identified Plymouth Rock as the exact landing spot. Although the veracity of the elder’s claim is unknown, Plymouth Rock "quickly became an American icon," the site added. Visitors stand in a pavilion while looking at Plymouth Rock, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on Nov. 18, 2018. (AP) The rock hasn’t always been in the same place Once the boulder was identified as Plymouth Rock, its nomadic history began. "In 1774, a team attempted to move the rock from shore and place it next to Plymouth’s liberty pole in the town square," said the National Museum of American History. "Before it could be removed from the beach, it accidentally broke in two." One part of the rock remained in place; the other piece was moved to the town square. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in a video Video shows “California sets their own forest fires and claims them as climate change effects.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 More than 100 years later in 1880, "the two pieces were reunited back on the shore and cemented together," the National Museum of American History said. In most images of the rock, it is easy to see where it was fused back together. Pilgrim Hall Museum’s website said "1620" was also cut into Plymouth Rock in 1880. In 1920, the rock was moved again, when Plymouth’s waterfront was redesigned and the shoreline was rebuilt, according to Pilgrim Hall Museum’s site. Sea levels are rising The rock has also been underwater before, during extreme weather and exceptionally high tides called king tides. Plymouth Rock yesterday vs today. pic.twitter.com/rW9Rko4Nkn— MA Sharks 🦈 (@MA_Sharks) March 3, 2018 #KingTide in Plymouth, MA. Pilgrims would have got their feet wet landing on #PlymouthRock today. @ericfisher @Plymouth_400 pic.twitter.com/DxgQQXxu3J— MA Sharks 🦈 (@MA_Sharks) November 15, 2016 Furthermore, experts said the rock is not a useful landmark for measuring sea level changes. Michael Oppenheimer, a Princeton University professor of geosciences and international affairs, said a single, stationary object "anchored in bedrock and free of tectonic activity" can sometimes be used to measure local sea levels. "But all it can indicate is local sea level, not ‘sea levels’ generally or the global mean rise," Oppenheimer said. Local sea level rise can significantly differ from the global mean sea level rise because of land sinking or tectonic activity, he said. Gary Griggs, a University of California, Santa Cruz, professor of earth sciences, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been tracking sea levels relative to land in Boston, near Plymouth Rock, for 100 years. These records show that sea levels have risen about 11.4 inches in the past century. Satellite data, which has been used to measure sea level rise since 1993, indicates an average rate of global sea level rise of about 13.9 inches per century, Griggs said. That rate is accelerating; over the past decade, the rate has increased to about 19.7 inches per 100 years, he said. "This is relatively simple science, and there are no alternate interpretations or facts," Griggs said. "Sea-level rise is directly connected to a warming climate. The warmer the planet gets, the more sea water expands, and the more ice melts, all adding to sea level." Oppenheimer also said global mean sea levels are rising annually and that the rise is accelerating. "There is no doubt about this," he said. Rising sea levels cause problems, some of which have already begun, Oppenheimer said. "So-called nuisance or fair-weather flooding has increased in frequency, meaning that high tides now flood streets on a regular basis along the coast in many states — up to 10 times as frequently as 50 years ago," he said. "Furthermore, in large coastal storms, flood risk is increasing as water penetrates inland further and to higher elevation." Our ruling There’s no proof that Plymouth Rock was at sea level when it might have welcomed the Pilgrims in 1620. The rock has also moved several times in the past 400 years and is sometimes submerged during high tides and extreme weather. Experts said that Plymouth Rock is not useful for evaluating sea level changes. That sea levels are rising, however, is undisputed. We rate this claim False. RELATED: What does extreme weather tell us about climate change? RELATED: Fact-checks about climate chan

“My opponent, Cindy Axne, has actively sought to defund the police. Defunding the police has been a divisive topic among Democrats during the 2022 election cycle, although the Pew Research Center reported that, as of September 2021, only 25% of respondents who identified as Democrats supported decreasing police funding. It’s no different for elected Democrats. While progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York have spoken in favor of reducing police funding and putting money into community programs for victim support and compensation funds, others, like Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey have sided with the majority of Democrats wanting police funding to increase or stay the same. In a July 10, 2022, Breitbart interview, Iowa state Sen. Zach Nunn, the Republican seeking his state’s third congressional district seat, said about Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne: "My opponent, Cindy Axne, has actively sought to defund the police." Nunn went on to say Axne signed a pledge to reduce police funding in order to receive money from Ocasio-Cortez’s Courage to Change political action committee. In an interview with PolitiFact Iowa, Axne said that $5,000 Courage to Change PAC contribution to her campaign was sent without her knowledge and that she made no pledge of any kind beforehand. "I never in my life have seen a pledge from her. And if I even had ever seen one, I would have never signed it," Axne said. Furthermore, Axne has sponsored multiple bills seeking to increase police funding. Such bills include the VICTIM Act, the Invest to Protect Act, and the Pathways to Policing Act — all of which were introduced after Axne received the contribution from Ocasio-Cortez’s Courage to Change PAC. The bills have not yet been voted on by the full House or Senate. Lauren Hitt, Ocasio-Cortez’s communications director, confirmed in an email to PolitiFact Iowa that Axne did not sign a pledge before or after receiving her donation from the Ocasio-Cortez PAC. "Only the people listed at couragetochangepac.org/distinctions completed a questionnaire, in association with their endorsement or receipt of funding. Rep. Axne is not on the list," Hitt wrote. Our check of the website with the aid of the internet archive, Wayback Machine, shows that Axne never was listed as an endorsee. Our research shows that while Ocasio-Cortez’s PAC includes a questionnaire, on which candidates are asked if they will push for legislation to reduce police funding, Axne received her $5,000 contribution from the PAC on March 29, 2021, without filling out a questionnaire or pledging to reduce police funding. Featured Fact-check Tim Michels stated on October 24, 2022 in News conference Tony Evers “wants to let out between 9,000 and 10,000 more” Wisconsin prisoners By Madeline Heim • November 4, 2022 Meanwhile, the Pathways to Policing Act, introduced in May 2022, would give $50 million each year from fiscals 2023 thjrough 2027 to help state and local law enforcement recruit new members. The bill is pending in the House Judiciary Committee. The Invest to Protect Act was introduced in January 2022 to assist local police departments with fewer than 200 employees by providing training, enhancing recruitment, and providing officers with access to mental health therapy. The bill authorizes up to $50 million annually in fiscals 2022 through 2026. The bill also is pending in the House Judiciary Committee. The VICTIM Act would provide $100 million in grants annually from fiscals 2023 through 2032. The grants would be for training, hiring, and the acquisition of new data processing technology for state, tribal, and local police departments. That bill passed out of the House Judiciary Committee in June on a 25-14 vote. Congressional records show that Axne also voted in favor of appropriations packages for fiscal years 2019 through 2022 that increased funding for local and federal law enforcement programs, agencies, and departments, each by hundreds of millions of dollars. The Courage to Change PAC made donations to 28 congressional candidates in March 2021 in addition to Axne. One of them was Rep. Mike Levin of California, who received a $5,000 contribution on the same day as Axne. Eric Mee, the congressman’s communications director, wrote in an email to PolitiFact Iowa that Levin didn’t make any pledge to defund the police either. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, who received $5,000 on March 30, 2021, and Rep. Tom O’Halleran of Arizona, who received a donation on March 31, 2021, also made no pledge for the contribution, their spokespersons told PolitiFact Iowa. Lydia Hall, a spokesperson for Nunn, wrote in an email that if Axne wouldn’t have taken Courage to Change’s $5,000 if she really opposed reducing police funding. "Cindy Axne voted for legislation that defunds police and is bankrolled by some of the loudest voices in the movement to defund police," Hall wrote to PolitiFact Iowa. The legislation to which Hall refers includes the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which several Republicans have said effectively defunds police by forcing them to spend money on unfunded mandates instead of regular duties. The bill would not reduce police funding, but require departments to put money into training and resources and apply for grants to pay for resources. Although the bill would offer grants to state, local, and tribal police departments, Phillip L. Swagel, director of the nonpartisan U.S. Congressional Budget Office, wrote that the training and technology would cost police departments more than the $85 million allowed for unfunded mandates in 2021 under the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act. The bill, pending Senate action and which Axne supported in a March 2021 House vote, would require state, local, and tribal police officers to complete training on racial profiling, implicit bias, and the duty to intervene when another officer uses excessive force. It also would require the creation of the National Police Misconduct Registry to compile data and collect records on police misconduct. Our Ruling Zach Nunn said in a Breitbart interview that Cindy Axne actively sought to defund the police, saying that she signed a pledge to reduce police funding to receive money from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Courage to Change political action committee. But the facts don’t back up the claim. Axne did not sign any pledge before or after receiving the donation and has voted for and cosponsored several bills that increase police funding. We rate the statement Fals

Benadryl can be used to reduce swelling from rattlesnake bites A Facebook post from 2019 claiming Benadryl can help treat rattlesnake bites has found new life recently as the longer summer days means more people spending time outdoors. The July 2, 2019 post said the information is from "someone in the know" and recounts a story about a man who was bitten by a rattlesnake and taken to a hospital for treatment. "By the time he got there his arm was starting to swell to the shoulder and his throat was getting tight," the post said. "The first thing the emergency room did was give him Benadryl. Apparently antivenom must be received within four hours of the snake bite, but the immediate threat is swelling and death of tissue, which was treated with the Benadryl." The swelling in the man's arm and throat immediately eased after he received the Benadryl, according to the post. The post encourages people to carry Benadryl with them as a treatment for a rattlesnake bite in case they or someone they know gets bitten. A similar post on Facebook from 2019 has also recently been shared again. However good these posts’ intentions might be, they go against wildlife and medical experts’ recommendations for how to treat rattlesnake bites. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Benadryl is the brand name for diphenhydramine, a type of antihistamine used to treat runny noses, sneezing and red, itchy, watery eyes caused by allergies and common colds. It is also used to treat throat and airway irritations. Unlike venom from bee stings, which cause the body to release histamines and can be treated with Benadryl, snakebite venom works differently, according to the Snakebite Foundation, a nonprofit group composed of doctors, paramedics and scientists. A rattlesnake’s venom contains compounds that cause tissue necrosis, paralysis, blood coagulation and, in some cases, death. It does not make cells in the body release histamine. Although rattlesnakes typically avoid people, around 8,000 people in the United States are bitten each year with about five cases ending in death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A small number of incidents are "dry bites," in which no venom is introduced into the body. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 A majority of bites happen by accident, usually when someone is walking or climbing and inadvertently touches a snake. Bite marks are typically found on someone’s hands, feet or ankles. Most of these snakebites happen from April to October, when snakes and people are most active outside, the U.S. Forest Service said. Dr. Nick Brandehoff, the Snakebite Foundation’s medical director and an assistant clinical professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said in a blog post that anithistamines like Benadryl won’t relieve swelling from snakebites because it’s not caused by an allergic reaction. Rattlesnake venom causes dying cells to release "intracellular contents" into the body, which prompts the swelling. Bites can also damage blood vessels, which causes blood plasma to leak into tissues and can lead to swelling. Allergic reactions do occur from snakebites, but Brandehoff said those are rare. The main treatment for a snakebite-triggered allergic reaction would be epinephrine, with Benadryl used only as a supplement to help "keep the allergic reaction from rebounding." "In short, Benadryl is not effective for snake envenomations in humans or other animals," Brandehoff said. "Antivenom along with proper supportive care are the only effective treatments supported by peer-reviewed literature." The Forest Service recommends anyone who is snakebitten to seek immediate medical attention. Bite victims should not be given anything to eat or drink, including medication, until cleared by a medical professional. Antivenin, also known as antivenom, is made by extracting venom from a snake and injecting it in small doses into an animal, like a horse or rabbit, until that animal can produce enough specific antibodies to fight off the venom. Each snake species will have its own antivenin. Antivenin is the only available drug treatment effective for people suffering from venomous snakebites. Only a small number of patients bitten by snakes will need antivenin, which can cause severe allergic reactions, is in short supply and is effective only if doctors know which kind of snake inflicted the bite. Our ruling A Facebook post said Benadryl can help treat rattlesnake bites by reducing the swelling they cause. Medical and wildlife professionals say Benadryl is ineffective against bites because antihistamines can’t counteract snake venom. Benadryl can provide some relief if someone suffers an allergic reaction from a snakebite, but only as a supplemental treatment and only in rare cases.The only drug effective in treating venomous snake bites is antivenin, also known as antivenom. We rate this claim Fals

"Fifty-four percent of Wisconsinites live in a child care desert. Wisconsin families are facing a child care crisis. During the worst of COVID, a wave of child care facilities closed, some for good, and Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs data indicates childcare employment is still recovering from the pandemic. Wisconsin State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski, a Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful, has taken up the pain felt by mothers across the state as she tries to appeal to working families. "Fifty-four percent of Wisconsinites live in a child care desert, full-time daycare can cost as much as college tuition, and our country is the only industrialized nation without paid family leave," Godlewski wrote in a recent opinion piece in the CapTimes on May 8, 2022. It’s true the U.S. does not guarantee parental leave. And multiple studies have found the average cost of daycare in Wisconsin can cost as much as in-state tuition at a University of Wisconsin school, according to the Economic Policy Institute. But, that 54% figure sticks out and will be the focus of this fact-check: Do more than half of the state’s residents live without ready access to child care? And what does the definition of a "child care desert" in the study cited by Godlewski include — and what does it leave out? A patchwork child care system means a patchwork child care research When asked for backup, Godlewski’s campaign pointed to research from Rasheed Malik, director of early childhood policy at the progressive think tank Center for American Progress, which found 54% of Wisconsinites live in a childcare desert. The Center for American Progress has produced regular reports on child care access in the United States and operates childcaredeserts.org, which displays child care access, or the lack thereof, as a heat map of the United States. Malik’s team compiled data on child care facilities in each state from regulators and then paired the information with U.S. Census tract-level data on the number of children in a specific geographic area. If there were there more than three children for each slot in a census tract for preschool children, a widely used threshold, it received a "desert" classification. Malik said he views the figure as a conservative estimate, since some facilities may be licensed for more slots then they have the staff to support. That is, licensing for 60, but staffing for 40. In other words, the picture could be worse. But the picture itself is a narrow one, and that creates limitations on what Godlewski and others can realistically glean from the data. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 For instance, the approach does not take into account those who rely on child care through family, friends and neighbors. Such arrangements are not easily tracked. (And a 2013 census report indicated as much as one-third of preschool-age children received care through non-licensed providers.) Likewise, the approach does not account for school-based programs, such as prekindergarten programs that have care before or after classes. That information was not included in the analysis because it is held by a different agency, if it is kept at all. So, as both examples underline, the approach counts at least some children who already have care when it tallies how much care is needed in each area to avoid a desert designation. At the same time, there are other nuances not captured by the data: For instance, there may be a need for child care in the evenings or during third shift and no licensed facilities open at those times. Likewise, most people live in one census tract and work in another — or, especially in densely populated areas, may be able to easily find care in a neighboring one. Even if they do, the picture remains skewed. Elizabeth Davis, professor of applied economics at the University of Minnesota, said a gradient — instead of a numerical threshold — would better reflect nuances in child care access. But such an approach would be much harder to create, especially on a national level, given that states track and report data differently. Experts we talked to said the limitations are understandable: The research is a bit of a patchwork because the nation’s child care system is a patchwork. "These data points should be a jumping-off point for communities to discuss demand and supply issues," Davis said. For our fact-checking purposes, Godlewski is accurately quoting a report — but she states research that has a host of limitations and caveats as a flat-out fact. That’s problematic, since many listeners likely hear "child care desert" as no available care — not as "limited access when looking only at only one piece of the puzzle." Our ruling Godlewski said 54% of people in Wisconsin live in child care deserts, referencing studies from the progressive think tank Center for American Progress. The study is recognized as one of the best available, but its methodology provides only a piece of the overall picture. And in distilling a complex, decentralized system into a neat, tidy percentage to tell a story, context and nuance are lost. 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“Third grade reading scores in the USA help correctional institutions predict how many beds they'll need in the future. Typically, standardized test scores are used to measure how well students have grasped what they’ve been taught over the school year. But an old claim suggests that something sinister is happening with those scores behind the scenes. "Did you know that third grade reading scores in the USA help correctional institutions predict how many beds they’ll need in the future," read the text on an Instagram post. "So rather than helping these babies, they just begin planning for incarceration. Welcome to America." The Instagram post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Old rumors like this one die hard — politicians and others have repeated the claim throughout the years. But widespread sharing doesn’t make it true. We’ve fact-checked it before. A U.S. Department of Education spokesperson told PolitiFact, "This does not appear to be true, at least at the federal level. We’re not aware of any instance in which the U.S. Department of Education has ever partnered with correctional institutions to determine, based on test scores, how much capacity in prisons will be needed in the future." We reported in 2013 that private prisons use inmate projections from state governments, not third-grade reading scores; the same is true now. Alex Wilkes, a spokeswoman from Day 1 Alliance, a trade association representing the prison corporations CoreCivic, The GEO Group, MTC and LaSalle Corrections, told PolitiFact that the claim was "total nonsense." "This is just another ridiculous example of the prominent role that misinformation plays in this debate and how some repeat these lies for years on end," Wilkes said. "Contractors are subjected to multiple layers of oversight, from health agencies to independent auditors, including on-site government monitors who work inside our members’ facilities to hold them accountable to the contract." As an example of the type of statistics used to determine future space in prisons, the Florida Department of Corrections pointed PolitiFact to reports from the Office of Economic and Demographic Research. A report from the Criminal Justice Estimating Conference, which met on Jan. 13, 2022, shows Florida Corrections officials lowered their estimates for the number of future inmates based on the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact in 2021. The Florida Corrections Department saw a reduced number of felony arrests, a decreased intake of inmates because of staffing shortages and an increased backlog in cases — and because of this, the department lowered its projections for inmate admissions and populations for 2022. "While there is upward pressure on admissions as the courts continue to process their backlog of pending felony cases and DOC works to clear their recent backlog, the reduced number of felony arrests are exerting enough downward pressure that admissions numbers are expected to lower admissions for the foreseeable future," the report read. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 14, 2022 in an Instagram post Video footage showing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi hiding on Jan. 6, 2021, shows the U.S. Capitol attack “was a setup.” By Madison Czopek • October 17, 2022 PolitiFact also contacted Peter Leone, who directed the National Center on Education, Disability and Juvenile Justice, which published a report during its operation from 1999 to 2006 that said in part, "​​At least one state uses reading achievement levels of students in the third grade as a basis for projecting the number of future prison beds needed." But Leone set the record straight for us in 2013: That sentence in the report had been included by a colleague before he got the facts, Leone said. Today, Leone, a professor emeritus of special education at the University of Maryland who specializes in behavioral disorders and school discipline, said the claim is still wrong, and there’s no study that can support it. "There’s just no truth to it. And no one I’ve ever talked to has been able to produce a study, a paper, (or) someone (who) will go on the record and say, ‘Yeah, actually that’s what we used to do. That’s what we did.’ It’s just nothing there." So why doesn’t the claim die? Leone said it’s likely because it’s catchy. Reports have shown that people including Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell, Terry McAuliffe and others have often repeated the statement. Prison corporations are not looking at third-grade test scores to plan for the future, and low reading scores alone do not mean that children are likely to go to prison when they’re older. But, Leone said, children who face difficulties such as low literacy, misbehavior or absences in school, or trouble in their homes or communities could be more likely to get in trouble with the justice system. "The nexus is not a clear cause-and-effect relationship," Leone said. "Rather, it’s a cluster of vulnerabilities that include poverty, race, low literacy levels, it’s a whole bunch of things. And that’s what makes those kids more vulnerable to the justice system." Our ruling An Instagram post touted the claim that correctional institutions research third-grade reading scores to help them determine how many beds will be needed in the future. The claim is years-old and false. Experts and reports have shown that there is no evidence to support it. Private prisons use inmate projections from state governments, not third-grade reading scores to plan for the future. We rate this claim Pants on Fire

"Antifa was already inside the Capitol with floor plans dressed as Trump supporters" on Jan. 6, 2021, proving the attack “was 100% a setup. False claims blaming antifa activists for the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, took off as soon as former President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the building. More than a year and a half later, those claims continue to spread online — despite having been thoroughly debunked. "Antifa was already inside the Capitol with floor plans dressed as Trump supporters," said the text over a viral Facebook post shared July 15. "This was 100% a setup." The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The post featured a video that first circulated days after the attack. It shows rioters discussing the Capitol’s layout from inside the building. One voice can be heard asking, "What’s the floor plan?" Another says, "We just need a plan. We need enough people. We need to push forward." Speaking into a bullhorn through a broken window, a woman is captured on the video shouting instructions to the rioters inside. She tells them in detail about the layout of an adjacent room in the Capitol and urges them to "coordinate together if you are going to take this building." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 Contrary to what the Facebook post claims, there is no evidence that the rioters in the video were "already" positioned inside the Capitol before the attack began. Separate footage captured from the same part of the Capitol shows several rioters climbing inside the room through the broken window before and after one rioter yells the expression heard on the Facebook video: "We just need a plan. We need enough people. We need to push forward." The video also does not show a "setup" by members of antifa. Antifa is a loosely organized coalition of anti-fascist left-wing activists commonly scapegoated for domestic unrest. The Chicago Project on Security and Threats, a group at the University of Chicago, has examined the cases of more than 900 people who had been charged with crimes relating to the attack. The team has found "no evidence" of antifa involvement, research director Keven Ruby told PolitiFact. That has not wavered since FBI assistant director Steven D’Antuono said two days after the attack that the agency had "no indication" that antifa played a role. PolitiFact could not identify all the rioters in the Facebook post’s video. But the faces in the video included known Trump supporters such as Mariposa Castro of California, whose social media activity indicated that she was a fan of Trump’s, according to court documents. Castro had attended Trump rallies, and her attorney said she went to Washington to support Trump. She pleaded guilty to one count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol. She was sentenced in February to 45 days in prison and a $5,000 fine. Court documents say Castro attended Trump’s rally at the White House Ellipse. Later, after seeing news reports from her hotel of the chaos outside the Capitol, she went to the building and climbed inside through the broken window; she was not "already" inside before the attack started. The woman seen in the Facebook video shouting directions to "coordinate" through a bullhorn is Rachel Powell of Pennsylvania, who started embracing Trump during his presidency and voted for him in 2020, she told The New Yorker. Powell was indicted on eight counts in March 2021. She has pleaded not guilty on all counts. Her case has not yet gone to trial. We rate this Facebook post Fals

Photo shows a woman who is wanted for impersonating a nurse and kidnapping an infant from a local U.S. hospital A recent warning being shared on social media may alarm some new and expecting parents: supposedly, a woman pretending to be a nurse kidnapped an infant from a hospital in Catonsville, Maryland. And Dodge City, Kansas. And North Platte, Nebraska. And Stuart, Florida. "This woman impersonated herself as a nurse and stole a 2day old baby boy from a local hospital in (CATONSVILLE)," one such July 12 post says. "She was caught on camera and is on the loose, if anyone sees her please report this to your nearest police station and please share this post so we help the 27year old first-time mother in reuniting with her son!" This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) We contacted the Baltimore County Police Department about the Catonsville post but did not immediately hear back. However, it appears that these warnings are hoaxes. The Dodge City Police Department is among the law enforcement agencies and hospitals that have responded to these claims and reassured their communities that they aren’t credible. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 15, 2022 in Instagram post Seattle authorities are investigating a string of serial killings. By Michael Majchrowicz • October 17, 2022 "We have no reports of any baby being taken from our hospital," the department said in a July 14 Facebook post. The posts feature a photo of a woman in scrubs carrying a newborn. But it’s an old image from another country. In 2016, a woman was arrested and confessed to taking a baby from a hospital in Cebu City, Philippines. Closed-circuit television footage from the hospital captured her walking away with the child. There was a more recent case of a woman impersonating a nurse and trying to kidnap an infant in the United States, according to authorities in Riverside County, California, but it does not appear to be related to the incident described in this Facebook image. On July 14, two days after this Facebook post was published, a woman entered a hospital there posing as a newly hired nurse, the Los Angeles Times reported. She tried to take the infant and then fled, but was later arrested, the sheriff’s office said. Posts that recycle an old image from the Philippines and claim that it shows a woman who is currently wanted in the U.S. for kidnapping from a hospital are wrong. We rate them Fals

"El 11 de mayo de 1987, el London Times informó en su portada: ‘La OMS entregó 50 millones de vacunas contra la viruela del mono, estas provocaron el SIDA a los africanos’. Un usuario publicó en Facebook una imagen de la portada del London Times en 1987 alegando que un artículo decía que la vacuna contra la viruela del mono causó el sida en África. "El 11 de mayo de 1987, el London Times informó en su portada: ‘La OMS entregó 50 millones de vacunas contra la viruela del mono, estas provocaron el sida a los africanos", dice la publicación. El post fue marcado como parte del esfuerzo de Facebook para combatir las noticias falsas y la desinformación en su plataforma. (Lea más sobre nuestra colaboración con Facebook.) La viruela del mono ha sido detectada en 14 países incluyendo los Estados Unidos; 1,814 casos han sido encontrados en Estados Unidos, según el Centro para el Control y Prevención de Enfermedades. El Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos anunció el 1 de julio la distribución de 2.5 millones de vacunas contra la viruela de mono para desacelerar el brote. PolitiFact encontró el artículo original del London Times, al que la publicación de Facebook hace referencia, en el cual el medio relacionaba la vacunación contra la viruela común con la propagación del VIH, no la vacuna contra la viruela del mono. Aún así, no hay evidencia de que la vacuna contra la viruela común cause el sida. El artículo del London Times señala que la Organización Mundial de la Salud estaba estudiando " nueva evidencia científica que sugiere que la inmunización con la vacuna contra la viruela Vaccinia activaba la infección por el virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana (VIH)". La publicación Irish Independent publicó un artículo el 12 de mayo de 1987 que descarta la teoría como una "especulación extraña". Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 "Los científicos dijeron que la teoría no tiene más fundamento que las historias que sugieren que la enfermedad se creó en un laboratorio estadounidense o vino del espacio exterior", dice el artículo. La Organización Mundial de la Salud reafirmó en un correo electrónico a PolitiFact que "no están al tanto" de la teoría presentada en el artículo del London Times. Los primeros casos del VIH fueron detectados en África central en la década de los 80 y fueron transmitidos de los monos a los humanos. Actualmente no existe evidencia de que la vacuna contra la viruela común cause el sida. Nuestra calificación Una publicación en Facebook muestra una portada del London Times de 1987 y alega que el artículo dice que la vacuna contra la viruela del mono causó el sida en África. Eso no es cierto. El artículo del London Times alega que la vacuna contra la viruela común — no la vacuna contra la viruela del mono — causó el sida. Aún así, no hay evidencia de que la vacuna contra la viruela común ocasione el sida. Calificamos la publicación como Falsa.

Video shows Ukrainian air defenses in Sievierodonetsk shooting down “55 Ka 52 helicopters. In late June, Sievierodonetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine, fell to Russia after weeks of intense battle. Some of the last Ukrainians to defend the city told Reuters that they left the city by boat at night for safety, and The New York Times reported that the exiled mayor of Sievierodonetsk "painted a bleak picture of life for those who remain." Government officials estimate 90% of buildings there have been destroyed. But a video being shared on social media a few weeks later perhaps buoyed Ukraine’s supporters. The description in the July 17 post said "Sievierodonetsk's air defenses shot down 55 Ka 52 helicopters." Dozens of comments cheered on Ukraine, with Ukrainian flags and GIFs congratulating the country. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 17, 2022 in una publicación en Facebook "Ministros de Defensa de OTAN deciden invadir a RUSIA para prevenir ataque de Putin”. By Maria Ramirez Uribe • October 17, 2022 This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) That’s because anyone who watches the video can clearly see that the footage isn’t authentic. It’s a video game. We rate claims of this footage’s veracity False.

“Antarctica is not a continent. Among the miscellaneous facts that young students often learn in the United States: There are seven continents in the world. But a recent Facebook post, shared in a group for people who wrongly subscribe to the flat earth theory, challenges that common knowledge. "Antarctica is not a continent," the post says. "Antarctica, the highest land mass on Earth with an average elevation of 7,545 ft above sea level, is the 360 degree perimeter of our known world and the container of our oceans." This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent in total area, according to National Geographic. It’s also the only continent without a native population or permanent human habitation, though there are permanent human settlements in which scientists and support staff live for some of the year on a rotating basis. The Australian Antarctic Program reports Antarctica is the driest, windiest and coldest continent in the world. It’s covered with ice with little exposed rock. The National Science Foundation says the highest mountains rise to elevations over 14,000 feet, about the height of the Rocky Mountains but it’s Antarctica’s thick ice sheets that make the continent the highest continent in the world. It’s also the southernmost continent and home to the South Pole. The British Antarctic Survey calls it "a cold desert." We rate this post False.

Video shows Donald Trump at an Alabama rally on July 13, 2022 Former President Donald Trump, facing thousands of cheering fans, stands behind a lectern bearing the words, "Save America." A video of that scene is being shared on Facebook with a description that suggests it first aired live on social media. "LIVE - President Donald J Trump in Cullman, AL - July 13, 2022," the post says. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The footage is authentic, but the timestamp isn’t. A simple search for Trump and Cullman, Alabama, reveals that the rally was held a year ago, on Aug. 21, 2021. He talked about President Joe Biden and Afghanistan and recommended that his supporters get a COVID-19 vaccine, a suggestion that was met with boos. We rate claims that this footage is from 2022 False.

CNN coverage has evidence of the “single most egregious, real-time example of electronic vote fraud. A Facebook video claims evidence of election fraud can be found in CNN’s 2019 coverage of the Kentucky governor’s race. "What you’re about to see is the single most egregious, real-time example of electronic vote fraud maybe ever captured," a voiceover in the July 10 video says. "And it occurred live on CNN." The video features a man talking about the changing vote totals in the race between Democrat Andy Beshear and Republican incumbent Matt Bevin as it plays a snippet of CNN’s 2019 broadcast, which featured on-screen graphics showing vote totals. A large graphic took up the main part of the screen; a small banner at the bottom of the screen showed the results. Both graphics showed Beshear with 673,948 votes and Bevin with 662,235, but an update occurred during the portion of the broadcast featured in the video. After the update, the larger graphic showed Beshear with 674,508 votes and Bevin with 661,675 — a difference of 560 votes for both candidates. There was a delay in updating the totals in the bottom banner, which meant the screen briefly and simultaneously showed Bevin with 661,675 votes in the larger graphic and 662,235 in the smaller graphic. The man narrating the video claims the discrepancy is proof the votes were stolen from Bevin and given to Beshear. "This is vote switching in the computer," he says. Beshear would go on to win the Nov. 5, 2019, election by more than 5,000 votes. The video was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Although it’s not mentioned in the narration or caption, the belief that the votes were changed electronically is consistent with the Hammer and Scorecard conspiracy theory — which PolitiFact previously ruled Pants on Fire. The theory suggests the "deep state," a cabal of entrenched government operatives, uses a supercomputer called "Hammer" to break into protected networks and change an election’s vote totals, aided by software called "Scorecard." A former military contractor and self-described whistleblower with a history of making wildly inaccurate statements claimed he created the computer and program. The theory gained popularity after the 2020 presidential election among supporters of former President Donald Trump, who wanted to prove the election was stolen and overturn the results. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 23, 2022 in a post Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs “sent 6,000 wrong ballots to Republicans.” By Gabrielle Settles • October 28, 2022 Chris Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security created by Trump in 2018, characterized the theory as disinformation and nonsense. "It’s just that — nonsense," Krebs said in a 2020 tweet. "This is not a real thing, don’t fall for it and think 2x before you share." CISA says every state has safeguards to ensure ballots cast during an election are correctly counted. Voting machines produce a paper audit trail, which can be manually counted as a check against the voting machine’s electronic result. There has been "no indication that cybervulnerabilities have contributed to any voting system deleting, losing or changing votes," the agency said. Bevin initially refused to concede the Kentucky governor’s race to Beshear, and called for a recanvass of the votes. The recanvassing involved reprinting the receipts from the state’s voting machines to check for clerical or reporting errors and recounting the results to ensure the correct totals were sent to Kentucky’s State Board of Elections. The final results did not change for Bevin or Beshear, and there was no evidence found of 560 votes being taken from one candidate and given to another. Election experts previously told PolitiFact inconsistencies in vote totals reported by news organizations like CNN don’t mean anything nefarious. Philip Stark, a statistics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said the numbers reported by the media on election night are not binding. Only a government’s election agency can make the final call on a race’s vote totals. Stark said the numbers CNN relied on for its election night coverage came from a third-party vendor, making counting errors more likely. People trying to hack an election wouldn’t change the election night numbers on a widely seen news network, Stark said. They would change the numbers directly in a voting machine’s system. Our ruling A Facebook video claims to show that evidence from CNN’s coverage of the 2019 Kentucky governor’s race proves the election was stolen by changing votes after they were cast. The post relied on a debunked conspiracy theory that claims a supercomputer operated by a cabal of government operatives was used to change the results. Government officials and election experts say there are safeguards to catch inconsistencies in the numbers voting machines send and election offices receive. We rate this Pants on Fir

“Biden admits $5 gas is being done on purpose” and “this has been his plan all along. "Biden ADMITS $5 gas is being done ON PURPOSE!" the text accompanying a video in a July 7 Instagram post says. "This has been his plan all along." "And when it comes to the gas prices, we’re going through an incredible transition that is taking place that, God willing, when it’s over, we’ll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over," Biden says in the clip. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The clip is authentic. We found the remarks in which Biden discussed gasoline prices on May 23. He was in Tokyo at the time, participating in a joint press conference with Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida. A reporter asked Biden whether a recession in the United States was inevitable after noting that "Americans are dealing with record-high inflation" and "there are just enormously high gas prices." Biden replied that he didn’t think a recession was inevitable. After the reporter pushed him to explain why, Biden talked about new jobs around the country and a growing gross domestic product in the face of problems he said the rest of the world was also experiencing. "Here’s the situation," he said. "And when it comes to the gas prices, we’re going through an incredible transition that is taking place that, God willing, when it’s over, we’ll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over." But his subsequent comments make it clear he wasn’t suggesting that it was his plan to have high gas prices, as the post claims. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 18, 2022 in an Instagram post Kamala Harris said, “We have to acknowledge gas is high which is the opposite of low.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 18, 2022 "And what I’ve been able to do to keep it from getting even worse — and it’s bad — the price of gas at the pump is something that I told you, you heard me say before, it would be a matter of great discussion at my kitchen table when I was a kid growing up. It’s affecting a lot of families. But we have released over 200 and, I think, 57,000 — million barrels of oil, I should say. Us and the rest of the world we convinced to get involved. It’s helped, but it’s not been enough." He went on to say that "This is going to be a haul" and will "take some time." "But in the meantime, it seems to me the best thing I can do — in addition to try to get the Middle Eastern countries, including OPEC, to raise their production of oil and move along that route — is to see to it that we continue to grow our economy, create jobs," Biden said. More recently, Biden has said Americans will endure high gas prices for "as long as it takes" to keep Russia at bay — "so Russia cannot in fact defeat Ukraine and move beyond Ukraine," Biden said June 30. He’s also proposed a three-month federal gas tax holiday and asked states to suspend their gas taxes to try to lower gas prices by $1 a gallon. RELATED VIDEO As we’ve previously reported, the country’s record-high prices at the pump followed a reduction of gasoline supplies as producers responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, when people weren’t traveling as much because of restrictions. As restrictions eased and the economy started to recover, production and supplies were slow to catch up to demand, and gas prices rose. The pandemic also affected supplies of necessary hardware for oil production, and there was a worker shortage. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also affected gas prices in the United States. The U.S. and Europe reduced their use of Russian energy, which shrank available supplies here further. Hugh Daigle, a petroleum and geosystems engineering professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told PolitiFact that "gasoline prices are still being driven by the COVID hangover as well as the geopolitical situation in Ukraine. Basically, all the movement in both oil and gasoline prices can nearly completely be explained by these two factors." We rate claims that Biden admitted to planning to make gas prices high in the United States as False.

R. Kelly “missing after prison security verify he’s escaped beneath facility. At the end of June, singer R. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison after he was convicted in New York of federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges. At the time, he was being held in a Brooklyn federal detention center. But an Instagram post a couple of weeks later claimed that he had escaped custody. "BREAKING: R KELLY reportedly MISSING after PRISON SECURITY verify he’s ESCAPED beneath FACILITY," the July 14 post said. It featured an image of Kelly and a picture of a tunnel with the ABC News logo and the word "exclusive." The post elaborated that he had escaped "his New York prison only a week after being sentenced." This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) R. Kelly did leave the Brooklyn detention center, but he didn’t break out. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 12, 2022 in a Facebook post “Trump woken up from his bed by police.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 14, 2022 The Chicago Tribune reported that Kelly, 55, was moved from Brooklyn to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago on July 12 in advance of another criminal trial. That one is set to start Aug. 15 and involves charges that Kelly conspired with two former associates to rig a 2008 child pornography case against him in Cook County, Illinois. (The Atlantic detailed that indictment, as well as the one from New York, in a 2019 story here.) Kelly’s full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly and we searched for it among current federal inmates on July 18. We found "Robert Sylveste Kelly," a Black male age 55, who was in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. We previously debunked a claim in 2021 that a photo showed Kelly being released from prison. The photo was an old one and showed him leaving jail in 2019 after paying child support he owed his ex-wife. He was still in custody then, and he’s still in custody now. We rate this post False.

Claims the James Webb Space Telescope is “fakery they got for the masses The first dazzling images from the James Webb Space Telescope were shared July 12 and provided a window into the universe’s distant past. But a video uploaded to Facebook the same day questions the veracity of the photos and the telescope’s existence. The video runs for about 13 minutes and includes a man commenting over clips from a White House briefing on the telescope and a television newscast detailing the telescope’s development. "THE REAL REASON WHY ‘NASA’ PUSHING THE JAMES WEBB TELESCOPE IN THE NEW WORLD ORDER THE WORLD WIDE FAMINE ALREADY STARTED," the video’s title proclaims. At the video’s beginning, the man says he is "about to expose this fakery they got for the masses," referring to the James Webb Space Telescope. "I can’t believe they keep passing off this fakery as real," he says. "But, guess what? In the new world order, that’s what they’re going to be able to do. Pass off all these dumb s--- on the masses." The man makes several outlandish claims about how there’s "nothing sensible" to the James Webb Space Telescope. He says the telescope can’t be real because it uses mirrors and is nothing like a traditional telescope that someone can look through. He also claims it’s impossible for the telescope to transmit images back to Earth because there’s "nothing carrying internet in space." The pictures the telescope took can’t be real because galaxies don’t exist and the Earth is "covered by a dome" and in a trapped environment, the man says. None of his claims have any basis in fact or reality. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The development and construction of the James Webb Space Telescope has been well documented over the years. The James Webb Space Telescope was first proposed in 1996 as a way to explore our cosmic history and the universe’s origins by viewing galaxies billions of miles from Earth, according to NASA. The James Webb Space Telescope is considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, which launched April 24, 1990. Whereas the Hubble telescope orbits 340 miles above the Earth and captures images using visible and ultraviolet light, the James Webb telescope scans space using infrared light and is positioned about 1 million miles from Earth. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 23, 2022 in an Instagram post “Wikileaks releases moon landing cut scenes filmed in the Nevada desert.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 25, 2022 There are two types of optical telescopes — refracting and reflecting. Refracting telescopes focus light through a lens to magnify a faraway image — similar to how eyeglasses focus light to make blurry images clear. Reflecting telescopes concentrate light by bouncing it off of a mirror to magnify an image. Although the James Webb telescope doesn’t look like traditional tube-shaped models, it is still considered a reflecting telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope uses a 19.7-foot-tall primary mirror to collect light. That light is bounced to a smaller secondary mirror, which then redirects it onto the telescope’s instruments, including a camera that records an image. Unlike what the Facebook video implies, broadcasting a signal through space is not impossible and has happened since the radio was invented in the 1890s. Radio and television signals emanating from Earth have even traveled outside our solar system. The James Webb Space Telescope is equipped with a high-frequency radio transmitter that can send information it has gathered, including images, toward Earth. That information is then collected by large radio antennas positioned around the world as part of the NASA Deep Space Network, which then forwards it to the Webb Science and Operation Center in Baltimore. The video’s claim that galaxies don’t exist is also unfounded. The concept of the night sky being filled with stars can be traced back to ancient times. The Greek philosopher Democritus theorized in the fifth century B.C. that a bright band of light that could be seen in the night sky was a collection of stars. He was describing part of the Milky Way galaxy. For a long time, people thought the Milky Way was the universe’s only galaxy. That changed in 1923, when Edwin Hubble was observing what was then known as the Andromeda Nebula at the Mount Wilson Observatory in Los Angeles County. Hubble was looking at a dim cluster of stars and found one considered a cepheid variable, which allows astronomers to measure distance based on that star's changing brightness. Using that star, Hubble calculated that the cluster wasn’t a nearby nebula within the Milky Way; it was an entirely separate galaxy. He looked at other recorded nebulae and concluded there were millions of other galaxies in the universe. The video’s description of the Earth being covered in a dome is connected to the long-debunked flat-Earth theory, which holds that the Earth is a flat disk contained underneath a dome with the sun, moon and stars. There is plenty of evidence to disprove the theory, including the multiple images of Earth that have been taken from space over the years. Most ancient Greeks believed the Earth was round, and astronomers were able to prove it by placing two identical sticks at different locations and comparing their shadows at the same time of day. One stick had no shadow while the other stick, placed about 500 miles north, did have a shadow. If the Earth were flat, the sticks would both have had either the same shadow or no shadow at all. Our ruling A video shared to Facebook claims the James Webb Space Telescope and the images it has taken are fake. The video makes wild claims about why the telescope is fake, offering no evidence and using debunked theories. The space telescope has been in the works for more than 20 years, and its development, construction and launch into space have been well documented. There is also plenty of evidence proving that broadcasting a signal through space is possible and that the Earth is round. We rate this Pants on Fir

KFC is giving away chicken bucket vouchers to customers who share a Facebook post before July 20 Fried chicken fans may have been excited to see some recent social media posts offering vouchers for free chicken buckets. "To celebrate this year's 70th Anniversary with KFC, we will be sending everyone who shares and typed 'Done' Before July 20th at 9pm. To get Vouchers. Each voucher can be used at any KFC to get three FREE chicken buckets!" read one July 15 Facebook post riddled with grammar and punctuation errors. Another post, now deleted, promised the same deal, but with slightly different conditions: "To celebrate 71 years of @KFC , we are sending out Vouchers to everyone who shares and typed "Love KFC" Before July 17th at 16.00. Each voucher can be used at any KFC to get three buckets of FREE chicken!." If the changing anniversary date didn’t tip you off, allow us: this is a scam. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 The KFC Fans account was created June 2, 2022, according to the Facebook page, and its "about" section describes its owner as "restoran." Another account with the KFC Fans page was created July 15, 2022. KFC’s Facebook account, by comparison, has been verified by Facebook and has the blue checkmark badge to prove it. It mentions nothing about the vouchers promised in the posts on KFC Fans. But previous posts on KFC’s verified Facebook page warn customers not to fall for scams online. "There are only 2 places that give you original finger lickin’ promotions," KFC said in a February 2020 post: on its verified Facebook page or its verified Instagram account. We rate posts from these other accounts Fals

Mehmet Oz “wants to make abortion a crime in Pennsylvania. Before he won the GOP primary for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, Dr. Mehmet Oz was accused by a fellow Republican of being "pro-abortion." Now, with the November general election on the horizon, a group that supports abortion rights claims that Oz "wants to make abortion a crime." The attack comes from Planned Parenthood Votes in a TV ad. The 30-second spot begins with clips from three TV news anchors reporting about the Supreme Court’s June 24 reversal of Roe v. Wade and the ruling’s aftermath. The ad shows a montage of the anchors saying: "The Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade … several states looking to ban abortions … with no exceptions for rape or incest." Then the ad’s narrator claims: "And now Mehmet Oz is so extreme, he wants to make abortion a crime in Pennsylvania." Oz supported the overturning of Roe, which protected access to abortion nationwide. He also favors letting states set their own abortion laws. Since the Roe reversal, performing an abortion is now a felony in some states. Oz backs abortions only in the limited cases of rape, incest, and if the life of the woman is in danger. He has not specified what criminal penalties, if any, he would support if a woman had an unlawful abortion. Oz also has not commented publicly on Republican efforts to remove the right to an abortion from Pennsylvania’s constitution. Ad’s claim lacks evidence To back its claim that Oz wants to criminalize abortions in Pennsylvania, the ad includes a footnote citing conservative talk show host Sean Hannity’s radio program from Dec. 23, 2021. That day, Hannity asked Oz about choosing Supreme Court justices and referenced Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Mississippi case that the court later used to overturn Roe. Oz said he wanted the justices "to make their decisions based on what the Constitution says." Oz also said he is "100% pro-life," but supports allowing abortions in cases of rape, incest or to protect the mother’s life. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe, Oz said he was "relieved that protecting the lives of America’s unborn children will once again be decided by the people through their elected representatives." After Roe was reversed, the laws in some states, including Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, Missouri and Tennessee, make it a felony to perform an abortion at any stage of pregnancy, or to do one outside of specific circumstances, such as medical emergencies. Planned Parenthood Votes cited to PolitiFact examples of Oz touting his stance on abortion, including his pledge to "be a bold voice in the Senate and a proud champion for the ‘pro-life’ movement." Featured Fact-check Liquid Death stated on October 27, 2022 in an ad In Georgia, it's "illegal to give people water within 150 feet of a polling place" and "punishable by up to a year in prison." By Tom Kertscher • November 7, 2022 The group argued that "there is simply no way" Oz can claim to be "100% pro-life" and support reversing Roe "without supporting efforts to make abortion a crime across the country." While Oz has said that he supports restrictions, he’s been silent on the question of what criminal penalties, if any, should be applied to patients or doctors. New move to limit abortion in Pennsylvania Abortion is currently legal in Pennsylvania through the 23rd week of pregnancy, and after that if the patient’s life or health is in danger, but there is a new effort under way to curtail abortion rights. Pennsylvania currently has a Democratic governor, Tom Wolf, who supports abortion rights, but it has a Republican-controlled state legislature. On July 8, the state’s Senate and House passed a bill that would ask voters to amend the state constitution to declare that there is no right to abortion in Pennsylvania. The bill must be passed a second time and the earliest voters could weigh in is 2023. If voters support the question to amend the state constitution, it would not ban abortion or change the existing law that makes abortion legal; that would require the state to pass a new law. Under such a new law, a governor likely would be unable to cite the state constitution if they wished to issue executive orders to protect abortion rights, said Pennsylvania State University law professor Dara Purvis. New laws restricting abortion would also be more difficult to challenge in court on state constitutional grounds, said University of Pennsylvania law professor Allison Hoffman. We did not find that Oz has made any statements about the constitutional amendment push. His campaign did not respond to our questions on whether he supports it. The campaign called the claim about making abortion a crime a "lie," citing Oz’s Hannity interview. Pennsylvania is a key 2022 race Planned Parenthood Votes is a super PAC affiliated with Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit providing reproductive health care services, including abortion. The affiliate has spent nearly $3 million in the 2021-22 election cycle, $2.53 million of it against Oz, according to the nonprofit OpenSecrets. In the Senate race, Oz, a physician and former TV talk show host, faces Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. The race could help decide which party controls the Senate, which is now split 50-50. Inside Elections rates the race as "tilts Republican" and Sabato’s Crystal Ball rates it as a toss-up. Our ruling Planned Parenthood Votes said Oz "wants to make abortion a crime in Pennsylvania." Oz suported the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe, which returned abortion regulation to the states. Oz said he favors letting states set their on abortion laws, and since the Roe reversal, some states have made it a felony to perform abortions. Oz says he backs abortions only in the limited cases of rape, incest, and if the life of the woman is in danger. He has not specified what criminal penalties, if any, he would support if a woman had an unlawful abortion. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details. We rate it Half True. RELATED: Mehmet Oz supports abortion in limited cases, but wants Roe v. Wade overturned RELATED: Ad Watch: Val Demings’ ad attacks Rubio on abortion RELATED: Nikki Fried’s ad misleads on Crist’s position on abortion access RELATED: Fact-checking ads in the 2022 election campaig

"If a 10-year-old became pregnant as a result of rape and it was threatening her life, then that’s not an abortion. The story of a 10-year-old rape victim having to travel from Ohio to Indiana to get an abortion has gained international attention. President Joe Biden talked about the case while giving a speech on abortion rights. "Ten years old. Raped, six weeks pregnant. Already traumatized. Was forced to travel to another state," Biden said July 8. "Imagine being that little girl. Just — I’m serious — just imagine being that little girl. Ten years old." U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., made reference to this case during a House Judiciary Committee hearing about "the threat to individual freedoms in a post-Roe world" on July 14. He asked witness Catherine Glenn Foster, president of Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion group: "Do you think a 10-year-old would choose to carry?" "If a 10-year-old became pregnant as a result of rape and it was threatening her life, then that’s not an abortion," Glenn Foster responded after some back-and-forth. We reached out to Americans United for Life for comment, but did not hear back. We had never heard this argument before, so we looked into whether abortions administered because of exceptions in abortion law change the definition of an abortion. They don’t. What is an abortion? The definition of an abortion varies slightly depending on the medical source or expert consulted. In medical terms, abortion is broadly considered a procedure undertaken to end a pregnancy. The National Institutes of Health defines an abortion as a procedure "to end a pregnancy." The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists uses the term induced abortion, which "ends a pregnancy with medication or a medical procedure." In an email to PolitiFact, the organization made a distinction between this and a spontaneous abortion, "the clinical terminology for miscarriage." The Mayo Clinic provides a definition for a "medical abortion" as "a procedure that uses medication to end a pregnancy." It adds that a medical abortion can be used "to complete an early miscarriage or end an unwanted pregnancy." Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 14, 2022 in an Instagram post Video footage showing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi hiding on Jan. 6, 2021, shows the U.S. Capitol attack “was a setup.” By Madison Czopek • October 17, 2022 Legal scholars tend to approach the matter differently than those in the medical community. When it comes to a legal definition, what constitutes an abortion is often dictated in part by whether the patient made a conscious decision to terminate the pregnancy. According to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School, an "abortion is the intentional termination of a pregnancy." Abortion laws across the states have used similar definitions. In Ohio, the law defines an abortion as "the purposeful termination of a human pregnancy by any person, including the pregnant woman herself, with an intention other than to produce a live birth or to remove a dead fetus or embryo. Abortion is the practice of medicine or surgery." Classifications for an abortion don’t change based on legal exceptions Even though there are differences in the medical and legal definitions of abortions, they all revolve around the ending of a pregnancy. The reason for terminating does not change the fact that the ending of that pregnancy is an abortion. That goes for abortions that are performed as a result of common exceptions under abortion laws: rape, incest or the health or life of the mother. "The definition of abortion is not dependent on the reason for needing an abortion," a spokesperson with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists told PolitiFact. Laws restricting abortion have been coming into effect across the country after the June 24 Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Most of these laws include limited exceptions, meaning a patient can legally get an abortion for the life or health of the mother or a medical emergency. Only about one-third of the laws allow abortions in cases involving rape and incest. !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); Chart created by PolitiFact Senior Correspondent Louis Jacobson "Regardless of those exceptions, terminating a pregnancy is an abortion," said Daniel Grossman, professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at University of California San Francisco. "An abortion means terminating a pregnancy, regardless of the reasons for terminating that pregnancy." Our ruling Foster said, "If a 10-year-old became pregnant as a result of rape and it was threatening her life, then that’s not an abortion." An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy. Neither medical nor legal definitions say the classification of an abortion is contingent on whether or not a law includes an exception. Cases of rape, incest or if the mother’s life or health is at risk are often included as exceptions in laws restricting abortion. But that does not change the classification of the procedure as an abortion. We rate the claim Fals

An image shows an “all aboard the Trump train” truck crashed into a bridge An image going viral online purports to show a truck with a pro-Trump message on its trailer crashed into an overpass. But the image, which spread across Facebook and Twitter in July 2022, was digitally altered to add the words "all aboard the Trump train" to a real photo of a truck accident. A recent Facebook post sharing the image was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 The original photo of the wrecked truck, which has been circulating since May 2015, shows the message on the side of its trailer actually read, "On the road to success, there are no shortcuts." A local news website in May 2015 published additional photos of the accident that showed the damage to the truck — which could be seen bearing the words "On the road to success, there are no shortcuts" — from other angles. Using those photos, PolitiFact geolocated the crash to a bridge at the intersection of Mamaroneck and Halstead avenues in Mamaroneck, New York. The edited version of the image, purporting to show "all aboard the Trump train" written on the truck’s trailer, first surfaced in 2018, according to reverse image searches. It circulated again in 2020 as social media users mocked former President Donald Trump, Snopes reported. We rate this viral image Fals

Video shows Biden giving the "same exact speech" months apart Footage showing President Joe Biden’s supposed verbal blunders has repeatedly circulated on social media, especially in conservative circles. But many of these videos were deceptively edited or taken out of context. Such is the case with a July 14 Instagram post that suggests the president delivered the same speech twice. "Two separate occasions, months apart, exact same speech," read the words that appear across an Instagram post that spliced together two of Biden’s speeches. The post, which was viewed more than 900,000 times, was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Although the speeches highlighted in the Instagram post bear some similarities, they’re not identical and weren’t delivered months apart. Both were about the Biden administration's efforts to improve the economy. The speech on the right was given Dec. 1, 2021; the speech on the left was delivered on Dec. 3, 2021. And the Instagram post omitted much of their differences. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 14, 2022 in an Instagram post Video footage showing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi hiding on Jan. 6, 2021, shows the U.S. Capitol attack “was a setup.” By Madison Czopek • October 17, 2022 For example, Biden coughed and stammered Dec. 3, when he spoke of the latest developments in gas prices. He also noted that while China may release additional oil from its reserves, it hadn’t yet agreed to do so — something he didn’t mention Dec. 1. Further, each speech focused on distinct tenets of the U.S. economy, and Biden shifted to different subjects after discussing prices at the pump. On Dec. 1, Biden hailed the American Rescue Plan for delivering "significant tax cuts for families raising kids," while holding a news conference on the supply chain. On Dec. 3, Biden told reporters he spoke with large retailers and grocery stores to ensure they’re "well-stocked" and able to meet consumer demand ahead of the year-end holiday season. His remarks were made during a news briefing on the November 2021 jobs report. Our ruling An Instagram post claimed Biden gave the "same exact speech" months apart. That’s wrong. The two speeches included in the Instagram post were delivered only days apart. Although a portion of each speech bore similarities, Biden’s remarks were different and geared toward distinct tenets of the U.S. economy. The post also omitted where the two speeches began to differ. For example, after Biden spoke of gas prices on Dec. 1, 2021, he immediately praised the American Rescue Plan. On Dec. 3, 2021, Biden spoke of consumer demand during the year-end holidays. We rate this Instagram post False

“In Virginia, we actually do protect same-sex marriage. Gov. Glenn Youngkin was elusive when recently asked if he would take action to guarantee same sex-marriage under Virginia law. "In Virginia, we actually do protect same-sex marriage," Youngkin, a Republican, told a national television audience June 10 on "Face the Nation." "That’s the law in Virginia and therefore, as governor of Virginia, we protect same-sex marriage." A number of state Democrats later accused Youngkin of spreading — to put it nicely — malarkey. "The Governor either doesn’t know Virginia’s constitution or he’s lying & assuming we won’t notice," tweeted U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger. State Sen. Adam Ebbin of Alexandria told the Richmond Times-Dispatch, "Either [Youngkin] is ignorant of the status of gay marriage in Virginia or chose to lie." So, we fact checked Youngkin’s statement. Same-sex marriage in Virginia and across the nation is guaranteed by the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. But here’s what Youngkin didn’t mention on camera: The Obergefell decision, made on a 5-to-4 vote, supersedes a still-existing provision in Virginia’s constitution that prohibits same-sex marriage. Should the current conservative majority on the high court reverse Obergefell, same-sex marriage would instantly become illegal in Virginia. Virginia’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was approved by voters in 2006. The General Assembly passed a bill in 2021 to ask voters to repeal the amendment. But proposed amendments to Virginia’s constitution must be passed by the legislature two straight years before they’re placed on ballots and, earlier this year, a subcommittee in the Republican-led House killed the bill on a 6-to-4 vote. Youngkin’s press secretary, Macaulay Porter, noted that the General Assembly passed legislation that repealed a state law barring same-sex marriage. But state laws are subservient to Virginia’s constitution, which still has the ban. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an image shared on Instagram “It’s not that there is no evidence the election was stolen, but that no court had the guts to HEAR the evidence. They dismissed the cases, NOT the evidence.” By Madison Czopek • October 28, 2022 The constitutional amendment "makes it clear that no other relationship may, by law, be given the status of a legal marriage," A.E. Dick Howard, a professor at the University of Virginia’s law school, wrote in an email. "If Obergefell were to be overturned, then, in Virginia, the marriage amendment would take precedence over any conflicting provision of state law. Same-sex marriages would not be recognized in Virginia." Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond’s law school, agreed. "If the Supreme Court reversed itself, same-sex marriage would become illegal [in Virginia]," he said. Obergefell’s future A key question is whether the Obergefell decision is in danger of being reversed, a matter Youngkin dismissed as "hypothetical." But many legal observers and members of the LGBTQ+ community see it as a real possibility following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in June, a 49-year-old precedent guaranteeing abortion rights. The court empowered states to set their own abortion laws. Justice Clarence Thomas deepened concerns in his concurring opinion, writing that the court should review its decisions in Obergefell and other "demonstratively erroneous" cases that have granted rights not specifically mentioned in the U.S. Constitution. Other justices in the majority did not echo Thomas’s sentiment and stressed that their ruling only applied to abortion. Our ruling Youngkin said, "In Virginia, we actually do protect same-sex marriage. That’s the law in Virginia and therefore, as governor of Virginia, we protect same-sex marriage." His statement is disingenuous. The only reason Virginia protects same-sex marriage is because a 2015 Supreme Court ruling requires all states to do so. Virginia law tacitly allows same-sex marriage. But it is superseded by the state constitution that specifically bans such unions, a provision that the Republican-led House stood by earlier this year. Should the high court reverse its 2015 ruling, as Thomas would like to see, same-sex marriage in Virginia would instantly end. Younkin told viewers of "Face the Nation" a small piece of the story. Although Virginia allows gay marriage, the state law he cites as protecting it is meaningless. We rate Youngkin’s statement Mostly False.

Actor Tom Holland is “confirmed to have died. An Instagram account posted multiple times in a day to baselessly claim that "Spider-Man" star Tom Holland died, sparking a flurry of similar posts across social media platforms. But there’s no evidence that the 26-year-old English actor is actually dead; the viral rumor is unsubstantiated and appears to be a hoax. PolitiFact searched Google and the Nexis news database, and found no credible news reports to corroborate the Instagram rumor. We also reviewed the Instagram and Twitter accounts belonging to Holland; his girlfriend, actress Zendaya; his three brothers; and several of his co-stars on "The Crowded Room," an upcoming Apple TV+ series that has yet to be released. We found no posts indicating that Holland had died as of July 14. (We reached out to Holland and agencies listed in Holland’s biography on the website IMDb, but we did not hear back.) Holland was spotted filming for the TV show July 6 in New York City. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 12, 2022 in a Facebook post “Trump woken up from his bed by police.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 14, 2022 The unsubstantiated rumor claiming Holland died was spread by an Instagram account with 186,000 followers, which repeated the rumor in numerous separate posts July 12. "THE TRUTH REVEALED: Spiderman’s Tom Hollard (sic) confirmed to have died by tripping + falling into a well and freezing to death," the account wrote in one such post, which received more than 20,000 likes. The post was designed to look like a screen grab of a tweet from an account called "The Reportygraph" — an account that we did not find on Twitter. Another post layered text that read, "Tom Holland, 1996-2022," over a photo that Holland recently posted on his own Instagram page. The posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)The Instagram account also shared memes mourning Holland’s supposed death, while other posts from the same day included references to media coverage of the hoax. In one post, the account shared a screen grab of Google search results showing headlines debunking the rumor. A day later, the account shared a close-up video of what appears to be a horse’s face. The caption read: "Please redirect all media outlets covering this page to this post as our official statement regarding the Tom Holland post. Squishy honse (sic)." We rate the Instagram post’s claim that Holland died Fals

Sen. Marco Rubio has "one of the worst attendance records in the Senate. U.S. Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., said her opponent in Florida’s U.S. Senate race, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, has a shoddy attendance record. "For 27 years, I showed up every day to put dangerous criminals away, never knowing I’d come home to my family, and when I was chief, we reduced violent crime by 40%," Demings said in a July 13 ad. "But Marco, you’ve got one of the worst attendance records in the Senate. When Florida needs you, you just don’t show up." Attacks for missed votes are common. But Rubio’s attendance record has come under repeated scrutiny from his political opponents. In 2016, former President Donald Trump said Rubio had the "No. 1 absentee record" in the Senate, and we rated the claim Mostly True. But does that criticism still hold up? We decided to find out. Rubio missed more than 9% of roll call votes throughout his career Since taking office in 2011, Rubio has missed 346, or 9.2%, of 3,744 roll call votes, according to GovTrack, ​​a nonpartisan website that collects congressional data. On average, members of the Senate miss around 2.3% of votes during their tenure. Most of Rubio’s career absences occurred during his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. From April 2015 through March 2016, Rubio missed 129 votes. That’s not unusual for a presidential candidate. For example, former President Barack Obama missed 314, or about 24%, of 1,300 roll call votes in his three-year Senate career. Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who both vied for the White House, have worse attendance than Rubio. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 14, 2022 in an Instagram post Video footage showing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi hiding on Jan. 6, 2021, shows the U.S. Capitol attack “was a setup.” By Madison Czopek • October 17, 2022 Sanders has missed more than 14% of votes since 2007; Cruz missed 9.4% since he joined the Senate in 2013. Still, Rubio’s attendance record did not immediately improve after his presidential campaign. According to ProPublica, in the 115th Congress, which ran from January 2017 to 2018, Rubio was the eighth most absent member in the Senate, out of 99 senators. (There was one vacancy.) In 2020, Rubio ranked 12th most absent among senators who have served more than 10 years. When looking at the current 117th Congress, however, Rubio’s attendance has improved. The 117th Congress began in 2021 and goes through January 2023. So far, he’s missed 41 votes, making him the 27th most absent member of the Senate. He cited "travel difficulties" for three absences, per ProPublica. It’s also worth noting that none of the votes Rubio missed in the 117th Congress had a specific impact on Florida. The most absent member of the Senate recently is Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota. So far, Rounds missed more than 25% of votes. Rubio’s campaign did not answer specific questions about his record. Instead, a spokesperson pointed to a list of his achievements in the Senate, including co-authoring the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP. Our ruling Demings said Rubio has "one of the worst attendance records in the Senate. " Looking at the percentage of roll call votes Rubio missed throughout his decade as a senator, the statement is accurate. Overall, Rubio missed more than 9% of votes since 2011 — well above the average of 2.3% among members of the Senate. One of the reasons for this is his unsuccessful run for the presidency in 2016. Rubio’s attendance record in the 117th Congress is a bit better. So far, he has missed 41 votes, making him the 27th most absent member of the Senate. We rate Demings' claim Mostly True

In Kenya, “pregnant women can’t leave the house, so they absolutely have no constructive right to vote. Kenyan citizens are calling for the record to be set straight after a Fox News host’s comments about voting rights in the country went viral. On a July 5 episode of "Gutfeld!" Fox News host Emily Compagno called out singer Katy Perry for tweeting on the Fourth of July that women in America had fewer rights than a firecracker. Compagno disagreed, and used Kenya as an example to back up her argument. "She’s talking about what, voting rights? That we have less voting rights here? What about in Kenya, where pregnant women can’t leave the house, so they absolutely have no constructive right to vote?," Compagno said. It’s unclear whether Perry’s tweet was specifically about voting rights for women. But Compagno’s response to it received plenty of social media pushback from Kenyans and Kenyan government officials, who pointed out that pregnant women in the country do indeed have voting rights. Charity Ngilu, county governor in Kitui and Kenya’s first female presidential candidate, tweeted in dissent of the claim. Female members of the Parliament of Kenya, referred to as Women Representatives, also shot back. "Pregnant women in Kenya are allowed to leave the house. Pregnant women in Kenya can vote. Pregnant women get priority on voting lines," wrote Women Representative Esther Passaris. In 2017, Agence France Presse reported that a pregnant woman went into labor and gave birth while waiting in line to vote at a polling station in Kenya. After going to a local health clinic, she returned to her polling place and cast her ballot. Rehema Dida Jaldesa, a fellow Women Representative from Isiolo County, Kenya, told PolitiFact,"That statement is entirely false as pregnant women, people with disabilities and the elderly hold the right to vote. In addition, it is common for them to be moved to the front of the polling queue, and given priority to vote. It is unfortunate that Emily Compagno and Fox News are spreading misinformation when they have the internet to fact-check." The rules that Jaldesa referred to are in protocols written in October 2020 by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, a regulatory agency responsible for conducting elections in the country. On page 11, the commission wrote that "persons with proven pre-existing medical conditions as well as elderly people, the disabled, lactating mothers, pregnant mothers and the sick will be given priority" in voting lines. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 14, 2022 in an Instagram post Video footage showing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi hiding on Jan. 6, 2021, shows the U.S. Capitol attack “was a setup.” By Madison Czopek • October 17, 2022 Kenyan law stipulates that every adult has the right to vote. The commission lists that a person can be denied registration to vote if they: Are younger than 18 years old Do not have a valid ID or Kenyan passport Have an undischarged bankruptcy Are convicted as guilty of an electoral offense Have been found by a court to not be of sound mind. We reached out to Fox News to ask whether Compagno could corroborate her claim, but received no response. However, The Daily Beast reported that Compago doubled down on her statement and cited an article from Grazia Daily and a report from the World Population Review. Grazia Daily did not include a source to back up its claim, and the World Population Review, citing a 2019 United Nations report about election-related sexualized violence against women, acknowledged that pregnant women in Kenya can vote and are given priority in lines. Our ruling A Fox News host claimed that in Kenya, pregnant women could not leave the house and therefore could not vote. Both Kenyan citizens and government officials pointed to evidence to the contrary. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission issued regulations to allow pregnant women to be given priority in voting lines, and Kenyan law stipulates that all adults are able to vote. We rate this claim Pants on Fir

Texas' public high school graduation rate is at 90% overall Gov. Greg Abbott's re-election campaign lauded education in Texas, with a May 15 video touting Blue Ribbon public schools, U.S. News ranking four Texas high schools among the top 50 STEM high schools, and the Texas public high school graduation rate. "Governor @GregAbbott_TX has lead education to a brighter future," Abbott's campaign Twitter account @TexansforAbbott's tweeted, "That's why Texas' public high school graduation rate is at 90% overall." Does Texas have a 90% high school graduation rate? State data supports the Abbott campaign's statistic. Texas data on high school graduation rates PolitiFact Texas reached out to Abbott's campaign but did not hear back. However, the video credited the Texas Education Agency for the graduation rate statistic. Of the students who started ninth grade in 2016-17, scheduled to graduate in 2020, 90.3% graduated within four years, according to a 2019-20 report by the agency. This percentage is called the four-year longitudinal graduation rate, because it measures how much of a starting ninth grade class completes high school within four years. The remaining 10% might have continued school, received a high school equivalency certificate, or dropped out. Abbott's statistic checks out. Some demographic groups have better graduation rates than others. Economically disadvantaged students graduated 6 percentage points lower (87.5%) than those who were not (93.5%). Compared with state averages, there were lower graduation rates and higher dropout rates for students in special education programs and students identified as learning English as a second language. Featured Fact-check Joe Biden stated on October 23, 2022 in a forum with Now This Student loan forgiveness is “passed. I got it passed by a vote or two. And it’s in effect.” By Louis Jacobson • October 25, 2022 Graduation rates as a campaign point Abbott and his predecessor Rick Perry have long rallied around their work on education and touted Texas' high school graduation rate. In 2018, Abbott said Texas ranked among the nation's top five states for its high school graduation rate. PolitiFact Texas found that to be True. In 2015 and 2013, PolitiFact rated statements by Perry to be Mostly True that Texas' high school graduation rates were third-highest in the nation. In 2011, Texas tied with five states for that title of No. 3. Texas was ahead of the national average graduation rate at 86% in 2018-19, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. It was among eight states with a 90% or higher graduation rate. In the mid-2000s, Texas took an aggressive approach to turning around high schools that were not graduating at least 60% of its senior class, said Jacob Kirksey, assistant professor of educational psychology, leadership and counseling at Texas Tech University. Many states including Texas saw gains around this time because of the No Child Left Behind Act. High schools later also adopted career- and college-readiness models. The state education system under Abbott continued this effort that began during Perry's leadership. "Compared to other states, I think Texas is not afraid to make changes and to try things out, which I think is a really important and powerful perspective to have in policy," Kirksey said. "At the end of the day, Texas is improving on all metrics with respect to graduation rates and attrition rates." Our ruling Gov. Greg Abbott's campaign tweeted, "Texas' public high school graduation rate is at 90% overall," accompanying a video touting K-12 and higher education wins. That matches data from the Texas Education Agency, so we rate this as Tru

Kevin McCarthy said Nancy Pelosi “should be prosecuted and jailed. There seems to be no love lost between House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In 2021, McCarthy joked that it would be hard not to hit Pelosi, a Democrat, with the speaker’s gavel if the Republicans take control of the chamber in the 2022 midterms. A few months later, Pelosi’s office issued a press release titled, "Is Kevin McCarthy OK?" that mocked McCarthy’s efforts to delay a vote on President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act. But we couldn’t find evidence that McCarthy said Pelosi "should be prosecuted and jailed," as a recent Facebook post claims. "‘She should be prosecuted and jailed’ — Kevin McCarthy exposed Nancy Pelosi with entire Dem," reads a confusing July 11 Facebook post. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 Spokespeople for McCarthy and Pelosi did not immediately respond to PolitiFact’s questions about the post. But we looked for a credible source attributing the statement to McCarthy and found none. Searching for the quote and McCarthy’s name on Google yielded three results — two Facebook quotes and a YouTube video. RELATED VIDEO In the video, which appears in the Facebook post, McCarthy criticizes Pelosi and the proposed COVID-19 relief bill from the House floor on Feb. 26, 2021. He didn’t say she should be prosecuted and jailed. He also didn’t say as much at a press conference that day, when he again discussed the COVID-19 relief bill, which he called "Pelosi’s Payoff Bill." We rate this statement False.

The “average federal income tax” paid by the richest Americans is “8%. … If you’re a cop, a teacher, a firefighter, union worker, you probably pay two to three times that. During a recent speech on the economy in Cleveland, President Joe Biden sought to spotlight the difference in tax burdens between the richest Americans and more typical taxpayers. "Billionaires in America — there’s 789 or thereabouts. You know what average federal income tax they pay? 8%," Biden said July 6. "Every one of you have a job (in which you pay) more than 8% (in taxes) — every single one of you. If you’re a cop, a teacher, a firefighter, union worker, you probably pay two to three times that." However, tax specialists say that Biden’s comparison is faulty. First, the 8% figure is a lowball estimate that uses a hypothetical calculation. And second, Biden’s statement ignores that most of the middle-income households he’s referring to pay tax rates of between zero and 15%. "The claim is dishonest and deceptive," said Alex Muresianu, a federal policy analyst at the Tax Foundation. Do the richest Americans pay an average federal income tax of 8%? The first part of Biden’s statement is misleading. The White House told PolitiFact that the figure comes from a White House report that looked at what would happen if the United States were to tax unrealized gains on stocks. Currently, if someone sees their stock shares rise in value over time, those gains are not taxed unless and until the shares are sold. If the shares are never sold, then they are never taxed, and under current law — which Biden has proposed changing — they may be passed on to the next generation with little or no taxation. (Despite the similar sounding name, unrealized gains are different from capital gains taxes; capital gains taxes are levied when the stock is sold.) The White House report found that if you include unrealized gains in the income calculations of the 400 richest U.S. families, then their taxes paid would account for just 8.2% of their income. Economists and policymakers have long debated whether the government should tax unrealized gains. But Biden made it sound like 8% was the standard rate today, not what would happen under a future proposal. What is the actual tax burden under the current tax code for the wealthiest Americans? IRS data from 2019 shows that the top 1% of taxpayers paid an average federal income tax rate of 25.6%, or about three times more than the White House’s estimate. A more elite group, the top 0.001% — which in 2019 meant people earning about $60 million or more — paid a percentage that was only modestly smaller, 22.9%. "Using the existing definition of taxable income, really rich people pay an average federal income tax rate in the mid-20s," said Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center. "If you want to include unrealized gains in your denominator, as the White House does, the average rate would go way down." Featured Fact-check Marco Rubio stated on October 18, 2022 in a campaign ad Val Demings "voted with Pelosi to raise taxes over $4,000 on Florida families." By Yacob Reyes • October 25, 2022 Do typical workers pay tax rates two to three times higher than wealthy Americans? Biden is offbase on middle-class tax rates, too. For starters, Biden’s statement ignores that 43.6% of households paid zero or negative net federal individual income taxes in 2019, according to the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center. (The percentage was higher in 2020, but that was because of temporary tax relief provisions during the coronavirus pandemic, so tax experts said it’s best to use the prepandemic figure from 2019.) That’s a lot of Americans paying zero federal income taxes. They may have paid payroll or other federal taxes, and potentially state or local taxes, but Biden specifically cited the "federal income tax" in his remarks. For a sense of scale, the bottom 40% of American incomes in 2018 included those earning below about $43,000 a year. The specific professions Biden cited earn a bit more than $43,000. The median annual income without overtime for police officers is $64,605; it’s $50,939 for firefighters and $67,080 for K-12 teachers. Still, measured by actual taxes paid under current law, the effective tax rate for incomes in this range are not two or three times higher than what the wealthiest pay. For households with adjusted gross incomes between $50,000 and $100,000, the Tax Policy Center found, a plurality of 42% paid an effective tax rate between 5% and 10%, while another 30% paid an effective rate between 10% and 15%. Also, 15% of those households paid an effective overall rate below 5%, and another 5% paid nothing at all or got money back from the government. In addition, while ordinary Americans have smaller stock holdings than the richest families do, many middle-income Americans have retirement accounts with plenty of unrealized income. Biden’s comparison takes unrealized income into account for the richest Americans, but not for ordinary Americans. Our ruling Biden said the "average federal income tax" paid by the richest Americans is "8%. … If you’re a cop, a teacher, a firefighter, union worker, you probably pay two to three times that." Today, the richest Americans pay an effective tax rate of more than 20% of their income as counted under the current tax code, not 8%. Meanwhile, among households earning between $50,000 and $100,000 a year, the vast majority paid effective tax rates of between 0 and 15%, which is not two to three times the rate that the richest pay. Biden’s statement is not accurate. We rate it Fals

Images from Hunter Biden’s laptop show Joe Biden naked with a young girl Internet users are circulating screen grabs from an old pornographic video and falsely claiming they are newly uncovered images of President Joe Biden naked with a young, bound girl. The images do not show Biden; they were cribbed from a pornographic video that has been available on pornography websites since at least 2014, reverse image searches show. The original video features an unidentified adult film actor, not Biden. But the miscaptioned images spread across the internet after posters on 4chan, a message board notorious for radicalizing mass shooters and giving rise to the QAnon conspiracy theory, claimed to have hacked an iCloud account belonging to Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Former President Donald Trump, his allies and social media users who support him have previously fixated on the alleged contents of a laptop tied to the younger Biden. "Hunter’s laptop. This guy looks familiar. Hmmmm," reads the text under the compilation of images, which was shared across mainstream social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, as well as on far-right message boards such as patriots.win. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 "The President of the United States showered with his daughter and people on this app still blindly follow him," said one July tweet that shared the images. "Let’s see how long it takes Facebook to remove this photo of their supreme leader on Hunter’s laptop," said a Facebook post sharing the same images the following day. The posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) PolitiFact has previously debunked out-of-context, manipulated or otherwise misleading viral images that purported to show Biden acting inappropriately with women or children. We rate this Facebook post Pants on Fire! RELATED: Fact-checking the pedophilia attacks against Joe Bid

"ADHD does not exist. A video clip circulating on Facebook claims attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder was fabricated to disadvantage Black boys. "ADHD does not exist. Neither does the learning disability," said Umar Johnson, a sociopolitical activist, in the video, which was filmed in 2017. A 14-second clip from Johnson's interview was shared on Reels and sums up the discussion with this claim: "ADHD does not exist." The video was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) But the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders says attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder does exist. The DSM is the American Psychiatric Association handbook medical professionals rely on for mental diagnoses. People diagnosed with ADHD "show a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity — impulsivity that interferes with functioning or development," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Johnson’s broader argument asserts that ADHD is overdiagnosed in Black boys so that large pharmaceutical companies can profit from the sale of ADHD drugs. Johnson has a doctorate in clinical psychology, is a certified school psychologist and wrote a book on ADHD and special education. "Simply diagnosing a Black boy with ADD did not result in a prescription. The drug companies were losing money. Wall Street was not getting paid, so they forced the American Psychiatric Association to add the H — attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder," Johnson said in the video. That's not true, said Dr. Eugene Arnold, a psychiatry and behavioral health professor at Ohio State University who studies drug development and alternative treatments for ADHD. Benjamin Lahey, professor of public health sciences at the University of Chicago who researches ADHD, agreed with Arnold. "There's nothing about the diagnostic criteria that rules out medication," Lahey said. Lahey was part of the child disorders workgroup for the fourth DSM, which was published in 1994 and defined ADHD and its list of symptoms. Lahey considers himself "the person most involved" because he ran the fourth DSM’s field trials. "It was all about the data on symptoms and impairment to the children's lives, never about coming up with some kind of bogus disorder that would sell more medications," Lahey said. Johnson did not respond to email requests for comment. Johnson's now-circulating ADHD claims originate from a 2017 interview with Houston radio station KQBT-FM 93.7, aka The Beat, in which he asked Black parents to refrain from getting their children evaluated for ADHD. Skepticism about the validity of inattention as a disorder has been around for generations. Let's break Johnson’s claims into four parts: the history of ADHD, Big Pharma's influence on the ADHD criteria, racial disparities in diagnoses and why the disorder is still controversial. A brief history of ADHD and its medications The earliest documentation of an inattention disorder similar to modern-day ADHD traces back to 1798, when a Scottish physician, Alexander Crichton, published "An Inquiry Into the Nature and Origin of Mental Derangement," one of the first English textbooks on psychiatry. Crichton characterized "the incapacity of attending with a necessary degree of constancy to any one object" as a mental disease that can be identified in childhood. It wasn't until 1902 that the "scientific starting point of the history of ADHD" came along, according to a study published in the National Library of Medicine. A British pediatrician described a "lack of moral control" using some similar patterns seen in people with ADHD, including a desire for instant gratification and impulsivity. In 1932, two German physicians reported on children with increased motor restlessness and an inability to stay still. They called it a hyperkinetic disease of infancy, and it was the first recorded instance of what’s now called ADHD. The characteristics defining this hyperkinetic disease — inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity — are the same as ADHD’s three main symptoms. In 1937, U.S. physician Charles Bradley reported on the first positive effect of stimulant medication in children. Bradley wasn't looking to resolve children’s troubles with focus, but to find a drug to help them with emotional distress, journalist Alan Schwarz wrote in his 2016 book, "ADHD Nation: Children, Doctors, Big Pharma, and the Making of an American Epidemic." Bradley tested the drug Benzedrine on 30 children and noted "the remarkably improved school performance of approximately half," in his 1937 study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. During the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, research on mental illnesses or behavioral disorders in children was often categorized as "minimal brain dysfunction." It was theorized that children who displayed behavioral abnormalities may have had minimal brain damage, although this characterization was later criticized as too speculative. The term "hyperkinetic impulse disorder" was coined in 1957, because research was showing "you couldn't always demonstrate damage," said Arnold, the psychiatry researcher from Ohio State University. To treat the new, ambiguous hyperkinetic impulse disorder, U.S. physicians Charles Bradley and Leon Eisenberg conducted a 1963 study on how "disturbed children" reacted to Ritalin. They found the drug did ease their symptoms. U.S. use of Ritalin increased after the American Psychiatric Association validated its hyperkinetic dysfunction definition. Drug companies started marketing Ritalin to parents as a way to get children to behave. In 1970, The Washington Post published an article reporting that 5% to 10% of children in a Nebraska elementary school system were taking drugs to control their hyperactivity as part of a "behavior modification program." Following a movement led by Dr. Virginia Douglas, the APA renamed the disorder "attention deficit disorder (ADD) (with or without hyperactivity)" in the third DSM handbook, published in 1980. In 1987, the APA published a revised edition that eliminated the two subtypes and renamed ADD as "attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 "That was just a mistake," Lahey said of eliminating the subtypes. "It was a very different group of people who had access to much less data. It was not a data-based decision that was, I think, sensible for them to make." Backed by Lahey's field research, the fourth DSM handbook, published in 1994, reinstated the subtypes and introduced three categorizations: "a predominantly inattentive type, a predominantly hyperactive-impulsive type, and a combined type with symptoms of both dimensions." Lahey said that's why there's now a slash in the name: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, "which means you can have either high levels of attention or high levels of hyperactivity, or both." The most recent handbook for mental disorders recognizes ADHD in both hyperactive people and inattentive people. People who show hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms often talk excessively, fidget and exhibit restlessness, the handbook states. People who show inattention symptoms often lose things, have poor organizational skills, are forgetful and make careless mistakes. ADHD is not a one-size-fits-all diagnosis. People who exhibit high levels of ADHD behavior are more likely to have serious, even fatal, accidental injuries. They are also more likely to develop depression and become suicidal compared with other children, Lahey said. "There's a range of how well kids pay attention and inhibit their impulses and regulate their motor behavior," Lahey said, "and the ones that are most unregulated are going to have problems because of it." Big Pharma It's true that ADHD medication, such as Adderall or Ritalin, are made by pharmaceutical companies that profit from drug sales. Industry researcher IBIS World estimates that the U.S. ADHD medication manufacturing industry is worth $9.7 billion in 2022. With ADHD diagnoses surveyed to be rising, demand is high. The Food and Drug Administration recently reported an ADHD-medication shortage. The APA has been criticized for its relationship with the pharmaceutical industry. Of the 170 researchers who worked on the fourth DSM published in 1994, 95 of them had a financial relationship with a drug maker from 1989 to 2004, a 2006 study found. The APA's guidelines allow psychiatrists to take money from pharmaceutical companies, and the 2010 Physician Payments Sunshine Act requires hospitals and individual physicians to disclose any financial relationship with the industry. And those relationships still exist. The biopharmaceutical company that makes Adderall, Shire LLC, spent more than $42 million in research payments to hospitals and individuals, according to a federal government database. But the idea that the APA bent to pharmaceutical company influence when creating the diagnostics for ADHD is nonsense, Lahey said. "I can tell you — that from all the hundreds of hours I spent with people, other psychologists and psychiatrists who were involved in developing the criteria — that there was never a hint of creating or having an interest in creating a diagnostic category that was not valid in order to sell more medication," Lahey said. "It was all about the data." We were unable to find any evidence concretely showing that drug companies pressured the APA's criteria despite financial involvement. ADHD misdiagnoses in Black children Johnson claims there is a "deliberate misdiagnosing of Black boys" for ADHD. But multiple studies show that Black children have not been disproportionately diagnosed for ADHD compared with white children. In 2016, the CDC estimated that 6.1 million U.S. children — 9.4% of all U.S. children — have been diagnosed with ADHD. Of those diagnosed children, 62% were taking medication for ADHD, a CDC survey showed. But Black children in the U.S. were 70% less likely to be diagnosed with ADHD compared with white children, according to a 2014 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health study. Black children have higher risks for ADHD than others, according to a 2021 Brown University study, while a 2013 National Library of Medicine study found that white children are more likely to get diagnosed with ADHD compared with their peers of other races. "The literature points to the fact that there's a whole access issue, and being able to get in to have a proper ADHD evaluation is lower in Black and Latino or Hispanic families," said Jeni Johnstone, assistant professor of psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University's Center for ADHD Research. Johnstone, who researches racial differences in diagnoses and treatment, attributed the diagnosis decline to cultural differences, varying parenting styles, costs, waitlists and language barriers. The three experts PolitiFact spoke with — Johnstone, Lahey and Arnold — said there was no evidence pointing to a deliberate misdiagnosis of ADHD in Black male children. We found no other specific evidence proving this in our own review of studies about ADHD. ADHD overdiagnoses Increasing evidence suggests ADHD is being overdiagnosed, regardless of race. Johnson says this is because the pharmaceutical companies are pushing their drugs on the APA, but Lahey said it’s because physicians aren't trained on how to properly diagnose ADHD. "They're trained to be physicians, and they're very good at diagnosing strep throat versus COVID," Lahey said, "But they're not trained to be psychiatrists." Many ADHD symptoms overlap with other mental illnesses. For example, children who are having trouble focusing in school may be diagnosed with ADHD when they are actually showing signs of post-traumatic stress or anxiety, Johnstone said. Besides a lack of proper training, Lahey said some medical professionals will shortcut the "rigorous methods that we used in the DSM for field trials" because it's time-consuming and costly, which could lead to over- or underdiagnoses. "There's just a lot of messiness in the application of the DSM criteria," Lahey said. "But does ADHD exist? Yes. That pattern of behavior causes real problems for kids, and it should not be ignored." Our ruling The claim that "ADHD does not exist" is not accurate. Johnson’s underlying argument about the justification for medication and disproportionate diagnoses of ADHD in Black children do not give his takeaway more credibility, either. Research shows and psychiatrists told PolitiFact that ADHD is a real mental disorder with a recorded history that dates back to 1798. While misdiagnoses do occur, research shows that Black children are often underdiagnosed compared to white children with similar behavior patterns. We rate Johnson's claim Fals

There are no artifacts to prove that slave ships existed Social media users called into question a massive portion of American history, wondering whether there was evidence to prove its existence. "Have you ever seen an actual slave ship? I’ve seen all kinds of artifacts, but never a slave ship, have y’all?" a Twitter user asked. "S--- not real," someone else responded. "I’m starting to believe the transatlantic slave trade is a fake story." The Twitter user who first posed the question posted a screenshot of the exchange to Instagram, which has since been taken down. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) There’s more than 400 years’ worth of evidence that slave ships and the slave trade itself, existed. Remains of the Clotilda, the last known ship that transported kidnapped slaves from Benin, West Africa, to the United States, were found in Alabama’s Mobile River in May 2019. The Alabama Historical Commission led the research to verify that the ship was indeed the Clotilda, which illegally transported 110 people to the state in 1860 — 50 years after the U.S. banned the importation of slaves. The emancipation of Black people in the United States was not recognized until 1865. "Co-conspirators, Timothy Meaher and Captain William Foster made an effort to evade authorities and destroy evidence of their criminal voyage by sinking, burning, and abandoning the vessel and then dividing the kidnapped Africans among their captors, where they remained in slavery until the end of the Civil War," the Alabama Historical Commission wrote on its website. To keep the pieces of the ship intact, the Clotilda remains at the river’s bottom. NPR reported that commission researchers are working to determine whether it’s possible to raise the vessel without destroying it. In the meantime, the commission has published images and gathered pieces from the wreckage to prove its location and existence. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 14, 2022 in an Instagram post Video footage showing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi hiding on Jan. 6, 2021, shows the U.S. Capitol attack “was a setup.” By Madison Czopek • October 17, 2022 Researchers recovered timbers from the wreckage of The Clotilda, May 4, 2022. (AP) PolitiFact contacted the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture to respond to the claim. A museum spokesperson pointed to the Slave Wrecks Project, a collaborative, international initiative between organizations in America, Africa and the Carribean to research and study the global slave trade "particularly through the lens of slave shipwrecks." The project combines "maritime and historical archaeology, history and anthropology" to research the international slave trade. National Geographic provided an intricate look at the project’s work to dive for and research historical maritime sites of wreckage. In total, 12.5 million enslaved people were brought to the United States. Our ruling Social media users questioned the existence of slave ships and the transatlantic slave trade. There is overwhelming evidence, including wreckage from slave ship sites, to prove that slave ships and transatlantic slave trading existed. We rate this claim Pants on Fire!

“High-ranking Ukrainian officials caught splurging on luxury real estate in Switzerland. Did top Ukrainian officials spend lavishly on fancy homes in Switzerland as Ukraine received billions of U.S. dollars to help defend itself in a war with Russia? No, and documents that supposedly support this claim are forgeries, a Swiss official said. A headline from Newspunch, a site that has spread misinformation in the past, states: "High-ranking Ukrainian officials caught splurging on luxury real estate in Switzerland." The headline spread to Facebook, and was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The article said its claims are based on a "fact-checked" Newspunch investigation. It links to tweets from @AZMilitary1, which has previously spread misleading information about Finland’s ties to Nazis and other topics. Newspunch’s article and the related tweets claim to show Swiss land registry documents and allege that three people who have ties to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy purchased multimillion dollar properties in Gstaad, a Swiss resort town. The officials named are Dmitry Razumkov, a politician, Oleksandr Danyliuk, a former National Security and Defense Council secretary, and Lyudmila Denisova, a former human-rights official. Denisova has since said that her firing was initiated by Zelenskyy. But the documents are fake. The Land Registry Oberland in Bern, Switzerland, keeps records about properties in Gstaad. Adrian Mühlematter, the Land Registry Oberland’s managing land registry administrator, told PolitiFact that the documents about the Ukrainian officials were forgeries. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 17, 2022 in una publicación en Facebook "Ministros de Defensa de OTAN deciden invadir a RUSIA para prevenir ataque de Putin”. By Maria Ramirez Uribe • October 17, 2022 Mühlematter sent us an article from the Swiss German-language newspaper Berner Zeitung that said the claim began with a blogger loyal to the Kremlin, who tweets in German under the alias Gagarin. A Berner Zeitung reporter discovered that the documents were forged because they contain inconsistencies, including land registry property numbers that do not match the addresses and identifying numbers that have insufficient digits. The documents also claim to be the first page of a five-page document. But Mühlematter said that typically only agricultural properties, because of listed easements, have documents that long. Newspunch’s article used the fake documents to try to convince readers that Ukraine’s government is corrupt and therefore undeserving of foreign aid. The article said: "Did anybody stop to think that sending billions of dollars in no-strings-attached aid to one of Europe’s poorest countries — that also happens to be one of the world’s most corrupt countries — might be a poor use of U.S. taxpayer funds?" However, the article also said there is "no evidence" that U.S. funds were used to purchase these Swiss properties. PolitiFact asked Newspunch for evidence to support its claims but received none. Our ruling A website claimed that three high-ranking Ukrainian officials had purchased luxury property in the resort town of Gstaad, Switzerland. A Swiss land registry official said the documents cited as evidence were forged; errors in them prove that they did not come from the registry, the official said. We rate this claim False

Falleció el papa emérito Benedicto XVI Una foto en Instagram alegó falsamente que el papa emérito Benedicto XVI ha fallecido. El 11 de julio, un usuario en Instagram publicó una imagen del papa emérito Benedicto XVI y texto encima de la foto que dice: "Murió el papa emérito Benedicto XVI. Joseph Ratzinger, tenía 95 años de edad y se encontraba en retiro". "Por medio de las redes sociales, se conoció la noche de este lunes 11 de julio, que el papa emérito de la iglesia católica, Benedicto XVI, habría fallecido", dice la publicación. "Hasta el momento de esta publicación, se desconocían las causas de la muerte de quien fuera el sumo pontífice entre los años 2005 y 2013". El post fue marcado como parte del esfuerzo de Facebook para combatir las noticias falsas y la desinformación en su plataforma. (Lea más sobre nuestra colaboración con Facebook.) La alegación sobre la muerte del papa emérito es falsa. Según la Agencia Católica de Informaciones, el rumor aparentemente se originó en Twitter cuando una cuenta con el nombre de usuario @BischofBatzing, Georg Bätzing, haciéndose pasar por el presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal Alemana, publicó "Fallece el papa emérito Benedicto XVI". Esa misma cuenta después publicó otro tuit diciendo: "Cuanta falsa creada por el periodista italiano Tommasso Debenedetti". Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 17, 2022 in una publicación en Facebook "Ministros de Defensa de OTAN deciden invadir a RUSIA para prevenir ataque de Putin”. By Maria Ramirez Uribe • October 17, 2022 Debenedetti es conocido por crear y compartir noticias falsas por redes sociales, según Verificado, un medio de comunicación Mexicano que se especializa en verificación de datos. El Washington Post en 2017 reportó sus tácticas para difundir información falsa por redes sociales. El artículo dice que Debenedetti crea cuentas falsas donde anuncia la muerte de figuras públicas y luego anuncia su participación en la maquinación. Luego de una búsqueda en Twitter, PolitiFact no encontró la cuenta @BischofBatzing. Tampoco encontramos una cuenta oficial de Bätzing. El Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano publicó un tuit en su cuenta oficial declarando la noticia como falsa. "El Vaticano no ha hecho un pronunciamiento oficial sobre el fallecimiento del papa emérito Benedicto XVI", el grupo dijo en su tuit el 11 de julio. El Vaticano no ha dicho que el papa Benedicto XVI ha muerto. Fuentes de noticias legítimas tampoco han reportado su muerte. Nuestra calificación Una foto publicada en Instagram alega que el papa emérito Benedicto XVI ha muerto. Eso no es cierto. El Vaticano no ha reconocido la supuesta muerte del papa emérito Benedicto XVI y fuentes legítimas tampoco lo han reportado. Calificamos la publicación como Fals

“Putin humiliatingly blows up all weapons and facilities" on Snake Island by retreating Russian troops Russia’s losses throughout the invasion of Ukraine have been characterized as humiliating defeats for the country, and a Facebook video suggests Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the bombing of Snake Island in the Black Sea following the retreat of Russian forces from the territory. Ukraine has been striking the island to eliminate Russian outposts; news outlets reported that Russian forces left after Ukraine said it bombarded the island with artillery. "EXTREMELY TERRIBLE," the July 2 post says. "PUTIN humiliatingly blows up all weapons and facilities of the Russian Army after being defeated." A video with the post claims Putin was unwilling to see "tens of hundreds of dollars" of military equipment left behind by Russian forces land in the hands of Ukrainians, and sent warplanes to drop phosphorus bombs on the island. "A humiliating setback for the Russian military, Putin was pushed to the brink when no one could save the Russian army on Snake Island," the video said. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Snake Island, though occupying just 0.06 square miles (42 acres), has played a significant role during the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The island, also called Serpent Island or Zmiinyi Island, is around 22 miles off the coast of both Ukraine and Romania, which is a NATO member. It became the site of a conflict early in the invasion on Feb. 24 when a group of Ukrainian soldiers stationed on the island refused to surrender to a Russian warship. The Ukrainian soldiers were fired upon by the Russians and eventually turned themselves over to the warship because they lacked ammunition to continue their defense. The takeover of Snake Island by Russian forces effectively led to a naval blockade on Ukraine and prevented the export of wheat and corn from the country. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 22, 2022 in an Instagram post A CNN headline shows Uganda’s president saying he doesn’t support Ukraine because it would be “disgusting.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 24, 2022 Both Ukraine and Russia are considered Europe's breadbasket, accounting for 30% of the world's wheat exports and 20% of corn exports. The invasion halted those exports, through the blockade against Ukraine and trade sanctions placed against Russia. Snake Island remained under Russian control until June 30, when the country’s defense ministry announced it was withdrawing troops from the area as a "gesture of goodwill" following increasing attacks on the island from Ukrainian troops. Valeriy Zaluzhnyy, commander in chief of Ukraine's armed forces, went on the messaging service Telegram to accuse the Russians of dropping phosphorus bombs on the island at 6 p.m. July 1, a day after the withdrawal. "Today at around 18:00 ... Russian air force SU-30 planes twice conducted strikes with phosphorus bombs on Zmiinyi island" Zaluzhnyy said, using the Ukrainian name for the island. The Ukrainian government shared black-and-white footage reportedly showing the island being bombed by Russian planes. Media outlets reporting on the bombing have been unable to confirm the veracity of the video or the attack. The Russian government has not commented. Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former Ukraine defense minister, told The New York Times the bombing footage looked weird, as it appeared most of the shots missed destroying anything of value on the island. That’s a far cry from the Facebook post's claim that "all weapons and facilities" were blown up. The Ukrainian government has previously accused Russian troops of using white phosphorus bombs, which can cause severe, long-lasting skin burns. Instances in which Ukraine has claimed Russia used white phosphorus bombs have not been independently verified. Our ruling A Facebook post claims Russia used white phosphorus bombs on Snake Island off the Ukrainian coast after withdrawing troops from the area. The post said the attack was intended to destroy all Russian military weapons and facilities that were left behind. The Ukrainian military announced the attack and provided footage apparently showing the island being bombed, but the footage has not been independently verified and Russia has not responded to the accusation. A preliminary analysis of the video found the attack didn’t destroy much of anything on the island. Because Russian troops did withdraw from the island, we rate this claim Mostly Fals

Sri Lanka’s president, Estonia’s prime minister and Ukrainian diplomats were arrested Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said he would resign in the wake of demonstrations by protesters demanding he step down. Some social media users who appear to be believers of the QAnon conspiracy theory are pointing to this power shift as evidence of long-hoped-for arrests. "Resigned or Ar_rested?" says the caption of a July 11 Facebook post. The post lists several people in addition to Rajapaksa: "Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe," "Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas' liberal Reform Party," "Ukraine's Ambaassador (sic) to Germany Andri Melnyk," (sic) "Ukraine's Dmbaassador (sic) to Hungary Liubov Nepop," "Ukraine's Ambassador to Norway Viacheslav Yatsiuk," and "Ukraine's Ambassador to Czech Republic Yevhen Perebyinis." It includes an image of a hand holding a hammer emblazoned with the letter Q and the words "Justice is coming." This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 There has been speculation that Sri Lanka’s president is trying to flee the country to avoid being detained, but we found no evidence that he and the other people mentioned in the post have been arrested. The prime minister’s office in Sri Lanka has said Rajapaksa said he would resign on July 13, the BBC reported, though the president has yet to formally do so. Protesters have stormed both his official residence and that of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and said they won’t leave until the men relinquish power. Wickremesinghe also said he would step down but the New York Times reported on July 10 that both he and the president are in hiding. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas announced on July 8 that her liberal Reform Party had reached an agreement after months of negotiations to form a majority coalition in the parliament, according to Reuters. Kallas said she would resign at a later date and get reappointed by the new majority as it forms the new cabinet. The Ukrainians mentioned in the post no longer serve as ambassadors. Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy dismissed them, according to a July 9 report from Ukrinform, Ukraine’s national news agency. Ukrinform didn’t provide any details about the dismissals. But the New York Times reported that Andriy Melnyk, the ambassador to Germany, was fired because he defended the legacy of a World War II nationalist leader who collaborated with the Nazis. Zelenskyy has called the dismissal of his ambassadors a rotation that’s part of normal diplomatic practice, the Times said. We rate claims that these political leaders and diplomats were arrested False.

Colloidal silver is “harmless” unless you’re allergic to it A recent Instagram post touted the health benefits of colloidal silver, a liquid with tiny silver particles, noting that unless you’re allergic to silver, it’s "harmless to all living creatures." Medical experts disagree. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Though colloidal silver is often promoted online as a dietary supplement, evidence for its purported health benefits is lacking, and colloidal silver can imperil your health, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. The agency, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, said "serious side effects" colloidal silver can cause, include argyria, a bluish-gray skin discoloration that is usually permanent, and poor absorption of some drugs, such as certain antibiotics. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 12, 2022 in a Facebook post “Trump woken up from his bed by police.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 14, 2022 Though topical silver is sometimes used on skin to treat burns or to prevent conjunctivitis in newborns, "silver has no known function or benefits when taken by mouth," the agency said, and "there are no legally marketed prescription or over-the-counter drugs containing colloidal silver that are taken by mouth." Other health care groups have issued similar warnings about colloidal silver. Early in the pandemic, PolitiFact debunked claims that colloidal silver was an effective COVID-19 cure. Claims that colloidal silver is harmless are also wrong. We rate this claim False.

Shooter in Highland Park, Illinois, “bought the gun illegally. A high-profile shooting that killed seven people and wounded many others on July 4 called attention to Illinois’ gun laws, which are considered some of the more restrictive in the U.S. Some social media users claimed Robert Crimo III, the 21-year-old who authorities say confessed to opening fire during an Independence Day celebration in Highland Park, obtained his firearms illegally. "He bought the gun illegally," the July 5 post read. "You FBI better step up on your game." The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The overall post is riddled with misinformation and debunked narratives about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting in May. The post’s initial claim is wrong, too. Crimo’s weapons were purchased legally. Crimo had a history of encounters with local police, but he was not barred from buying guns. In April 2019, police responded to a report that he had attempted suicide. In September 2019, he made threats that prompted local law enforcement officials to temporarily seize knives and a sword Crimo had kept in a closet. In December 2019, Crimo applied for a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card, which is needed to legally buy firearms in Illinois. This was about three months after Highland Park police had filed a "clear and present danger" report about Crimo because of his threats. Because he was younger than 21 at the time, Crimo’s application included a legal guardian affidavit signed by his father. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in an Instagram post There were two shooters in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 Crimo legally obtained his FOID card in 2020 after his application was reviewed, The Chicago Tribune reported. He also passed four background checks when purchasing firearms between June 2020 and September 2021. His criminal history included a possession of tobacco violation and he had no "mental health prohibitor reports," according to law enforcement. From 2020 and 2021, authorities say Crimo legally purchased five guns, including the one he used during the July 4 attack, Reuters reported. Illinois has a red flag law that would have allowed Crimo’s family or law enforcement to petition a judge to temporarily prevent Crimo from possessing or obtaining firearms because he was considered dangerous. In this case, however, neither law enforcement nor any family members filed a petition seeking to prevent Crimo from acquiring guns. Our ruling A Facebook post claimed that Crimo "bought the gun illegally." Investigators told news outlets that Crimo obtained the proper identification to legally purchase firearms and passed several background checks before ultimately buying his weapons legally. We rate this claim False. RELATED: What Illinois’ ‘red flag’ gun law means after the Highland Park shooting RELATED: Highland Park shooting wasn’t a ‘false flag’ RELATED: Ask PolitiFact: What are red flag gun laws and do they keep people safe? RELATED: No evidence ties Highland Park shooter to anti

Abortion is available at any point of pregnancy and for any reason in Alaska, Colorado, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon and Vermont Focus on the Family cheered the toppling of Roe v. Wade, declaring the Supreme Court’s decision "the most consequential legal ruling of our lifetime." Several days later, the evangelical Christian group bought ads on Facebook and Instagram warning about late-term abortions in several states where the procedure remains legal. One ad claimed: "Did you know that abortion is available all nine months of pregnancy in New Mexico — even up until the moment before birth and for any reason?" Besides New Mexico, ads with the same text singled out Oregon, Alaska, Vermont and New Jersey. The ads urged viewers to sign online petitions against the "extreme abortion law" in each state. Earlier Focus on the Family ads claimed that Colorado’s law "allows for abortion at any point of pregnancy — right up to delivery, no questions asked!" Laws in those six states, as well as in the District of Columbia, do not explicitly prohibit an abortion from being performed at any stage of pregnancy. But abortions later in pregnancy are rare, and are generally not being done "up until the moment before birth and for any reason." These abortions are performed on a case-by-case basis when there are maternal or fetal complications, said Laurie Sobel, associate director of women’s health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, an authority on heath care information. "People cannot opt for an abortion instead of child birth when they are full term," she said. Abortions rare after 21 weeks The overall number of abortions done each year in the United States is difficult to peg. The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights research organization, contacts abortion providers and uses other data to make estimates every three years. The group estimated in its latest report that there were 930,160 abortions in 2020, an increase of 8% from 2017. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its latest count, published last November, that there were 629,898 abortions in 2019, up 2% from 2018. That’s based on reports by health agencies, though a few states, including California, did not report. The vast majority of abortions are performed early in pregnancy, according to the CDC report. Nearly 93% of abortions in 2019 were done during the first trimester, at or before 13 weeks gestation, and about 6% occurred between 14 and 20 weeks of pregnancy. Less than 1% were performed at 21 weeks or later. A CDC spokesperson said the agency does not have more detailed statistics on abortions performed at or after 21 weeks. The six states When PolitiFact asked Focus on the Family to back up its claims, a spokesperson referred us to a WorldPopulationReview.com article. The article said the District of Columbia and seven states "allow for late-term abortions with no state-imposed thresholds." (The Focus on the Family ads focused on six states, not including New Hampshire.) Featured Fact-check Liquid Death stated on October 27, 2022 in an ad In Georgia, it's "illegal to give people water within 150 feet of a polling place" and "punishable by up to a year in prison." By Tom Kertscher • November 7, 2022 "Thresholds" was a reference to how late in a pregnancy an abortion could be performed. We reviewed research from Guttmacher and KFF and found that in New Hampshire, as part of the state budget that took effect Jan. 1, abortion is generally banned after 24 weeks. Abortion is not prohibited at a specific gestational age before fetal viability in the District of Columbia and in the other six states cited in the article. However, these abortions are rare in each state. Here are their regulations and a look at how often abortions are done at or after 21 weeks, which is one marker the CDC and states use in reporting on abortions: Alaska: There is no law permitting or banning abortion, meaning it likely will remain legal there, at least in the immediate future. The Alaska Supreme Court recognized the right to abortion under the state constitution. Two of the 1,226 abortions (0.2%) performed in Alaska in 2021 were done at or after 21 weeks, according to the state. Colorado: The state passed a law in 2022 directly allowing access to abortions. An anti-abortion activist falsely claimed that the law was "legalizing abortions through all nine months, up until the moment of birth." In 2021, 1.5% of abortions in Colorado were done at or after 21 weeks, according to the state. New Jersey: The state passed a law in 2022 directly allowing access to abortions. Even though the law does not prohibit abortions at any stage of pregnancy, New Jersey’s providers do not perform them after 24 to 26 weeks, Dr. Glenmarie Matthews, director of the Reproductive Choice Program at New Jersey Medical School, told PolitiFact. Any procedure near the end of pregnancy, she added, would be induced labor, not an abortion. "No one’s doing that. It doesn't exist. People are just using their wild imaginations," she said. New Mexico: The state has no law permitting or banning abortion, meaning it likely will remain legal there, at least in the immediate future. The latest state figures show that in 2019, 1.8% of abortions were done at 21 weeks or after. University of New Mexico Health offers first- and second-trimester (after 14 weeks) abortions. It does not provide third-trimester abortions, a spokesperson said. Oregon: The state passed a law in 2017 directly allowing access to abortions. In 2020, about 1.57% of abortions were performed at or after 21 weeks, according to the state’s latest figures. An anti-abortion group said following the Roe reversal that it plans to bring a bill to Oregon lawmakers to ban abortion later in pregnancy. Vermont: The state passed a law in 2019 directly allowing access to abortions. The latest available state data shows that 1.5% of the abortions performed in 2019 occurred at or after 21 weeks. No providers in Vermont perform elective abortions after 22 weeks, Stephanie Winters, deputy director of the Vermont Medical Society, told PolitiFact. When these abortions are done, "it is not because of an unwanted pregnancy, these are medical reasons," she said. Our ruling Focus on the Family said in ads that abortion "is available all nine months of pregnancy" in Alaska, Colorado, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon and Vermont, "even up until the moment before birth and for any reason." Under laws in those six states, abortion is not specifically prohibited at any stage of pregnancy. But late-term abortions are rare and usually for urgent medical reasons. Nationally, less than 1% of abortions are performed at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy, and they are roughly as rare in the states where there is no time prohibition on abortion. Near full term, contrary to what the ads suggest, abortions are not done, experts say. The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False. RELATED: Now that Roe is gone, what happens in the states? RELATED: Fact-checks on abortion RELATED: Fact-checking ads in the 2022 election campaig

"Milwaukee’s hotels and restaurants are already filled during the summer. The RNC convention will simply replace those who normally visit our city. While the mayor and Milwaukee political leaders have welcomed the possibility of hosting the 2024 Republican National Convention, a group of liberal community groups from across the state has decried the effort. The coalition includes Voces de la Frontera Action, Never Again is Now, SEIU Wisconsin State Council, Freedom Action Now and Black Leaders Organizing Communities. The groups issued a statement on June 2 , 2022, urging Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson not to seek the convention. The statement listed a series of disadvantages to the convention, including this claim: "Milwaukee’s hotels and restaurants are already filled during the summer. The RNC convention will simply replace those who normally visit our city." Is that accurate? New faces, same numbers? VISIT Milwaukee, the city’s convention and visitors bureau, spearheaded the bid for the 2024 RNC and has noted that winning it would put Milwaukee in the national spotlight and elevate the city as a convention destination. According to VISIT Milwaukee, the city should anticipate visitors reaching about 45,000 during the convention – a figure that includes 2,551 delegates, plus family members, media, operations personnel and more. A spokesperson said the city will need to secure 16,000 rooms for the convention. (For the 2020 Democratic National Convention, which mainly went virtual due to COVID, local organizers were able to secure 17,000 rooms.) Peggy Williams-Smith, president and CEO of VISIT Milwaukee told WISN-TV in a March 22, 2022 report that there are roughly 19,000 hotel rooms in the City of Milwaukee. With that background on hotels, let’s look more closely at the claim. The main argument by the liberal groups is that during the convention period, these hotel rooms are typically already booked solid anyway. Therefore, the convention itself would create a substitution effect and not really bring new people – and their money — to the city. We’ll set aside the fact that it is a major part of VISIT Milwaukee’s job to fill those very rooms (by bringing conventions to town and promoting Milwaukee as a tourist destination), and zero in on the numbers. If Milwaukee wins the bid, the convention could be held during one of three proposed windows: from July 9 to July 25, from Aug. 13 to Aug. 29, or from Aug. 20 to Sept. 5. During the same time periods in two recent years from before the pandemic, 2017 and 2018, occupancy rates hovered around 76% and 77% — with rooms costing anywhere between $140 and $175 per night, according to data from VISIT Milwaukee. So, the groups are off on that point. As envisioned, the RNC would fill the rooms entirely. Much like the overall $200 million "economic infusion" expected if Milwaukee wins the bid, VISIT Milwaukee based total hotel room revenue projections on a study by Cleveland State University on the economic impact of the 2016 RNC in Cleveland. In Cleveland, the hotel occupancy rate went up 20.2% because of the convention, according to the study, and hotels had an average nightly rate at $290. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post The documentary “2,000 Mules proves” Democrats “cheated on the 2020 elections.” By Jon Greenberg • October 28, 2022 VISIT Milwaukee has estimated a total economic impact of $200 million from the convention (we rated a claim from the mayor about the size of the impact Half True). Williams-Smith now says hotel revenue alone could tally $23.2 million over the five days – a much smaller figure than the $32 million estimate she provided for that earlier item. Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, who has studied the economic impact on cities that hosted the Republican and Democratic national conventions between 1970 and 2004, said it is important to note that some of the rooms would be full with or without the convention. "Every hotel room is full and it’s full of delegates," Matheson said of estimates of the economic impact. "This has a huge economic impact, but they forget to note that even if the RNC wasn’t in town, hotels are typically at 60% or 70% occupancy anyway. So they assume that those hotel rooms that are full of delegates would have been completely empty in the absence of the event. But of course we know that’s not true." In any case, for purposes of this check, we are mainly interested in how full the rooms are – and all agree that they would not otherwise be at capacity during a typical week in August. So on the hotel side of the equation, the groups opposing the RNC are overstating their claim. A closer look at restaurants The impact on restaurants is similar, but more anecdotal. According to the study of the 2016 Cleveland RNC, restaurants there saw much success and many visitors. The Cleveland study, which was carried out by a four-person team at Cleveland State University’s Center for Economic Development, conducted two case studies of restaurants in the Cleveland area – both reported that they thrived during the convention. As with hotel rooms, though, some of that business would be there with or without a convention. And the report did not mention how many diners were local residents versus conventiongoers. "Hotel bars are going to do well," Matheson told PolitiFact Wisconsin. "If you’re a server and a hotel bar, your tips are likely to be pretty good." While restaurants, bars and hotels may fare well during a megaevent such as a national political convention, safety concerns due to potential protests and heightened security may "dissuade casual shoppers and diners and result in major disruptions for local residents," according to the study of past conventions. One example cited in the study was that during the 2004 RNC in New York City, attendance at Broadway shows fell more than 20% compared with the same week a year prior despite the influx of thousands of visitors attending the convention. "Anyone in their right mind who works in and around downtown Milwaukee is going to take that week off," said Matheson. "They’re not going to go to their usual happy hour place." Our ruling Liberal groups opposing the 2024 RNC in Milwaukee claimed: "Milwaukee’s hotels and restaurants are already filled during the summer. The RNC convention will simply replace those who normally visit our city." The groups have a point, in that the baseline is not zero. There are visitors who stay at hotels, and diners who eat at restaurants with or without a convention. But they vastly overstate the point by suggesting there would be no increase or benefit at all from the RNC. Statistics have shown a typical Milwaukee hotel occupancy rate of about 76% in August. And clearly all restaurants are not 100% full either. So there clearly would be some economic benefit to bringing the event to the city, even considering the substitution effect. Our definition for Mostly False is "The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression." 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“Ninety-two percent of abortions in Virginia take place before 15 weeks. U.S. Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) is urging Republicans to protect life from the moment of conception and reject Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s efforts to strike a compromise with Democrats that would ban most Virginia abortions at 15 weeks. "Ninety-two percent of abortions in Virginia take place before 15 weeks," Good said Saturday during a rain-soaked rally on Capitol Square. Further angering Good, Younkin has also said the limit might have to be stretched to 20 weeks to gain needed bipartisan support in the General Assembly. "Ninety-nine percent of abortions in Virginia take place before 20 weeks," Good said. He accused Youngkin and a panel of Republican negotiators of being open to a deal that would ban only 1% of abortions in Virginia. We fact-checked Good’s percentages and found that they are slightly understated. Good’s campaign says his statistics come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most current CDC data shows there were 15,601 Virginia abortions reported in 2019 and 15,201 of them — or 97.5% — occurred at 15 weeks of pregnancy or earlier. That’s 5.5 percentage points higher than Good’s figure. CDC records show 15,511 Virginia abortions in 2019 — or 99.4% — occurred at or before the 21st week. Rounded down, that matches Good’s figure. Another way of stating this: 90 of 15,601 abortions in Virginia — or 0.6% — occurred after Youngkin’s potential 20-week fallback position. Here are the full CDC statistics on the number of 2019 abortions in Virginia based on weeks into pregnancy. Gestation, in this case, was determined by a clinician’s estimate of the date of conception. Six weeks or less, 7,917, or 50.8%; Seven to nine weeks, 5,215, or 33.5%; 10 to 13 weeks, 1,938, or 12.4%; 14 to 15 weeks, 121, or 0.8%; Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 16 to 17 weeks, 131, or 0.8%; 18 to 20 weeks, 179, or 1.1%; 21 weeks or more, 90, or 0.6%; 10 unreported conception dates. Nationally, women have abortions slightly later than in Virginia: 42.9% of abortions occur during the first six weeks; 98.9% in the first 20 weeks. The U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision in June has given states new power in limiting or banning abortions. Before the court’s recent ruling, states had to allow abortions until the point of fetal viability — the time when a fetus could survive outside the womb — which occurs at about 23rd week of pregnancy. Virginia allows abortions during the first two trimesters of pregnancy, or up to about 26 weeks. Third-trimester abortions are permitted only when three physicians certify that a continued pregnancy would likely cause the death of a woman or "substantially and irremediably impair (her) mental or physical health." Youngkin has consistently stressed that he opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest and when a woman’s life is endangered by a pregnancy. Although he has mentioned drawing lines at 15 and 20 weeks, the governor said he would be willing to sign "any bill … to protect life." Virginia’s General Assembly is split, with Republicans controlling the House and Democrats ruling the Senate. Youngkin has asked a group of four Republican legislators to propose an abortion bill that could win needed bipartisan support. Leading Senate Democrats have vowed that no new abortion limits will make it to the floor. Good, although not a member of the General Assembly, is urging no compromise on the opposite end of the abortion spectrum. In Congress, he is a co-sponsor of "The Life at Conception Act," which would recognize rights from the "moment of conception." Our ruling Seeking to protect life from the moment of conception, Good said, "Ninety-two percent of abortions in Virginia take place before 15 weeks." He slightly understated his case. According to CDC, 97.5% of Virginia abortions in 2019 — the latest year for which data was available — occurred at 15 weeks or earlier. Good also said, "Ninety-nine percent of abortions take place in Virginia take place before 20 weeks." The actual figure is 99.4% and Good accurately rounded it down. All told, we rate Good’s comments Mostly Tru

Shinzo Abe was assassinated because he “didn’t mandate vaccines, sent 1.6 million doses back and gave citizens ivermectin. Authorities in Japan are working to piece together how and why a gunman assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe using a homemade firearm on July 8. Police said Tetsuya Yamagami, the 41-year-old shooter, denied having a political motive and told investigators he wanted to kill Abe because he believed Abe was affiliated with an organization he disliked, according to reports from the Guardian and other outlets. Police did not identify the organization, but Japanese media reported it was a religious group that the shooter’s mother donated money to before she went bankrupt. The leader of the Japan branch of the Unification Church, whose members are colloquially referred to as "Moonies" and are believed by some experts to act like a cult, said Yamagami’s mother was a member. The investigation into Abe’s assassination is continuing as of July 11. But amid the information gap, misinformation over what happened is spreading online. One conspiratorial Instagram post baselessly suggested that Abe was killed for shunning the COVID-19 vaccines and embracing the drug ivermectin as he led Japan’s pandemic response. "Assassinated Japanese P.M. didn’t follow (World Economic Forum) orders," said the July 10 post. "Didn’t mandate vaccines, sent 1.6 million doses back and gave citizens ivermectin. Make sense now?" The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The post is unsubstantiated and factually misleading; there’s no evidence Abe was killed over his COVID-19 response, and that response did not involve promoting ivermectin over vaccines. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 16, 2022 in an Instagram post “Covid vaccinations now prohibited in people under 50 in Denmark.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 18, 2022 The notion that Japan under Abe had abandoned its vaccine rollout and started treating COVID-19 patients with ivermectin gained traction in October 2021 thanks to a false blog post from far-right radio host Hal Turner, who has a history of pushing conspiracy theories. COVID-19 vaccination in Japan The Japanese government does not mandate COVID-19 vaccination. Japan in September 2021 recalled about 1.63 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines after a human error in production led to contamination. But Japan never stopped all vaccination efforts. The country has administered more than 280 million vaccine doses as of July 11, according to Our World in Data and Reuters. About 81% of the country has been fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data. Ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug, is not listed among the medications approved for COVID-19 by the Japanese government. (U.S. federal health agencies also do not approve ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19.) Our ruling An Instagram post claimed that Abe was assassinated because he "didn’t mandate vaccines, sent 1.6 million doses back and gave citizens ivermectin." There is no evidence that Abe was killed for this reason; the investigation into his assassination continues, but police have said the shooter denied a political motive, according to reports. The Instagram post built on previously debunked allegations that Japan scrapped its vaccination efforts to focus on prescribing ivermectin for COVID-19. Although the country recalled some tainted Moderna shots, it continued vaccinating and did not authorize using ivermectin. We rate this post Fals

“The immune system does not exist. Health experts and officials have urged people with compromised immune systems to take extra precautions during the coronavirus pandemic, but a recent TikTok post claims that immune systems aren’t real. "The immune system does not exist," someone in the TikTok claims. "What you call the immune system is just the lymphatic system." A Facebook post sharing this TikTok video was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The immune system is real. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 According to Cleveland Clinic, the lymphatic system is part of the immune system. It’s a network of tissues, vessels and organs that move a fluid called lymph through the human bloodstream and protects the human body from illness-causing invaders, such as bacteria, parasites and viruses. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia likens the immune system to a police force: "it patrols everywhere, and if it finds a disturbance, it calls for backup." If the immune system is a police force, the hospital says, "lymph nodes are their stations." We rate claims that the immune system doesn’t exist False.

“Belarus declares war on Poland. Belarus’ president has said his country supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but Belarus hasn’t declared war on Poland, as a recent Facebook post claims. "This is a very stupid move!" the July 8 caption of a video post says. "Belarus declares war on Poland." This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) A video in the Facebook post offers a more nuanced take on global affairs, noting recent remarks by Maj. Gen. Ruslan Kosygin, a top military official in Belarus. Kosygin recently said that Belarus would respond to Western provocations by attacking Poland, according to the International Business Times. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 22, 2022 in an Instagram post A CNN headline shows Uganda’s president saying he doesn’t support Ukraine because it would be “disgusting.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 24, 2022 "In the event of a conflict, the territory of Poland with its military infrastructure becomes a priority target of the strike, namely decision-making centers, elements of the control system, points of permanent deployment of the National Armed Forces, arsenals and bases, as well as critical objects of their economy and transport infrastructure," the Times quotes Kosygin as saying. RELATED VIDEO Poland has previously accused Belarus of engaging in "hybrid warfare" by sending increasing numbers of migrants over their shared border. But the claim that Belarus has declared war on Poland was made in the context of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine. Although news reports have said that Belarus has threatened to retaliate against Poland in the case of Western provocation, it’s an overreach to say that the country has declared war. We rate this post False.

House Democrats have kicked Rep. Ilhan Omar out of Congres Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar is facing a primary challenge for her Minnesota 5th Congressional District seat on Aug. 9, but for now she’s still an active member of the U.S. House, despite a social media post claiming otherwise. The headline and caption appearing with a video on a June 8 Facebook post reads, "Finally! House Democrats kicks Ilhan Omar from Congress." The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The video shared in the post, however, shows not House Democrats, but state Republican legislators speaking about Omar at a 2019 news conference. Meanwhile, there’s ample evidence showing that Omar is still serving her district in Congress. In the 2019 news conference, Republican state Rep. Steve Drazkowski said he and others formally asked the IRS to investigate Omar’s tax returns after a separate state campaign finance probe found that she and her husband had filed joint tax returns in 2014 and 2015 before marrying. It’s unclear whether any IRS investigation ever took place or whether Omar amended her tax returns. The House of Representatives does have the power to expel members, but it’s rarely used and requires a two-thirds majority vote. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post “Nancy Pelosi (purchased) 10,000 shares of Amgen, manufacturer of Nplate, a drug used to treat radiation sickness.” By Sara Swann • October 25, 2022 According to the House, five members have been expelled in its history, the most recent on July 24, 2002, when longtime Ohio Democrat James Traficant, who was convicted on 10 felony counts of racketeering, bribery and fraud, was ousted on a 420-1 vote. Before Traficant, another Democrat, Michael Myers, who was convicted of bribery, was expelled in 1980. The first three expulsions came in 1861, when three Democratic members who fought for the confederacy were ejected. While House Democrats have expelled members of their own party on a few occasions, there has been no effort to oust Omar. A quick search of her Twitter profile, official government website and campaign website, as well as her appearance at a June 30 town hall in Minneapolis show she’s still on the job. Omar will face former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels in a Democratic primary Aug. 9. Our ruling A Facebook video said that House Democrats kicked Omar out of Congress. House members do have the authority to expel members, but it’s rarely used and requires a two-thirds majority vote. Such an expulsion would generate news coverage, but there is none. Omar held a town hall meeting with constituents last month and is running for re-election in August. We rate this claim Pants on Fir

A photo shows two men on the run who pretend to be homeless and then “attack and rob you. The booking photos of two men are spreading online with an oddly worded warning for residents of Columbus, Ohio. "The public around south Columbus is being warned to be vigilant & alert," one post says. "These two men go around claiming to be homeless, seeking for help but then attack and rob you. (They) are on the run and anyone may be a victim, let others know so that we alert the authorities when we see them." This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The post is similar to one the police department in Manor, Texas, debunked. In that warning, which featured the booking photos of two different men, Manor residents were told to "be alert and vigilant" because "these 2 go around claiming to be homeless, seeking help, then they attack you and they are very dangerous." The department called it "a hoax meant to cause fear and stir emotion within our community." Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 9, 2022 in a Facebook post “Donald Trump is back on Twitter,” thanks to Elon Musk. By Sara Swann • October 10, 2022 We did a reverse image search for one of the booking photos in the post about Columbus, Ohio, and found a May 26 news story about the men, who are accused of wearing clown masks during a deadly shooting in Volusia County, Florida. RELATED VIDEO Both men were indicted on first-degree murder charges, so it would be unlikely that they have since been released from custody and are disturbing an Ohio community. A search of Volusia County online records shows both men remain in custody. The Columbus Division of Police regularly posts booking photos of people who have been arrested and the crimes that they’re accused of committing, but we didn’t find these men among them. We rate this post False.

Elon Musk’s account “is suspended on Twitter after backing out of $44B deal. After Elon Musk moved to back out of his deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion, the social media company threatened to sue him, but it didn’t suspend his account. Still, some social media posts are sharing what looks like evidence that Twitter did. "Elon Musk page is suspended on Twitter after backing out of $44B deal," said one Instagram post sharing an image of a Twitter page showing @eIonmusk’s account had been suspended. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 Musk’s verified Twitter account handle is his name, @elonmusk, and there’s no evidence he was suspended. Musk has been tweeting regularly, including a meme he shared on July 10 mocking Twitter’s legal threats. An account with a similar-looking handle has been suspended: @eIonmusk with a capital "I" instead of a lowercase "l" in Musk’s first name. A suspension notice on the account’s page does not spell out why it was suspended, but Twitter takes action on accounts with misleading and deceptive identities. We rate claims that Musk’s account was suspended False.